Proceedings against Göttingen professor for animal experiments discontinued!

Proceedings against Göttingen professor for animal experiments discontinued!

In the scientific world it is often controversial that boundaries are sometimes crossed. The current focus is on the merger of the Max Planck Institutes for Experimental Medicine and Biophysical Chemistry to form the MPI for Multidisciplinary Natural Sciences (MPI-NAT) in Göttingen. But it's not just the institute's strategic realignment that's causing a stir. The case of medical professor Hannelore Ehrenreich, against whom there were several lawsuits for unauthorized animal experiments, puts additional pressure on the institution.

The Göttingen public prosecutor's office has now decided to close the proceedings against Ehrenreich. The investigation revolved around unauthorized animal experiments with mice, which, according to internal controls, were discovered at the City Campus around two years ago. Violations of the Animal Welfare Act are said to have occurred in a total of four cases between 2018 and 2023, which the authority classified as “difficult and controversial”. Ultimately, the prosecution was unable to sufficiently prove that Ehrenreich had knowingly violated applicable guidelines. So she made the decision to discontinue the proceedings without conditions in order to avoid extensive reports, as HNA reports.

The controversies surrounding animal testing

The experiments discovered internally involved the killing of 160 mice, which gave the institute management reason to inform the responsible authorities. The accusation of having carried out animal experiments after the approval expired on June 20, 2022, sheds a worrying light on the practice at the MPI-NAT. 26 animals were killed during an unauthorized series of experiments, which ultimately led the Lower Saxony State Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (LAVES) to refer the case to the public prosecutor's office. In two cases, LAVES identified clearly recognizable violations of the Animal Welfare Act, an approach that without a doubt makes people sit up and take notice, according to Die Niedersachsen.

The entire dispute has far-reaching consequences for the researcher, whose employment relationship at the MPI-NAT was severely strained by the allegations. After she was dismissed without notice, she fought for her job at the Göttingen labor court, but the lawsuit was unsuccessful. In an agreement, the employment relationship was ended on January 31, 2024, while she has now taken up a new position at the Central Institute for Mental Health in Mannheim.

Re-investigations and consequences

However, this incident is not the first of its kind in the scientist's career. In the course of her work at the MPI, she has been critically observed several times. The institute itself has announced that it will take measures to prevent Ehrenreich from continuing to carry out animal experiments - a step that is entirely understandable given recent events. In particular, the deepening of the topic of animal testing will probably remain on the research agenda for a long time, so there is an urgent need for action here. The question also arises: What do we as a society find acceptable in the name of research, and where do we draw the line?

It now remains to be seen how the situation surrounding animal testing will develop in the future and what measures will be taken to ensure that such incidents do not happen again. The Hannelore Ehrenreich case continues to represent an explosive discourse in the research community.