A German university's space travel experiment has been put on ice for now, as it would have cost the lives of dozens of hamsters. The court said there were still unanswered questions about the ethics of the animal tests.
Image: picture-alliance/imagebroker
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The University of Marburg was told to hold off on plans to carry out animal testing on 36 dwarf hamsters, after a German court rejected their experiment on Friday.
The tests, which are part of a larger research project with the European Space Agency (ESA), would have seen the hamsters put into a "sleep-like state" that is supposed to help them survive for long periods of time without food or water.
The results of the tests are intended to be used to further space travel research. In the end, all 36 hamsters would have been killed.
Technology instead of animal testing
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The experiment was first rejected by the regional council in Giessen on the grounds that the University of Marburg did not provide sufficient evidence that the animal tests were indispensable and ethically acceptable.
An emergency appeal filed by the university was rejected by the Giessen administrative court on Friday, as the institution could not sufficiently answer questions about the ethics of the experiments in a short period of time, local public broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk reported.
The court's decision is not yet in force, as both the university and regional council have two weeks to file an appeal with the Higher Administrative Court in Kassel.
Germany is a big fan of celebrity animals. Sometimes it’s because of an endearing physical characteristic. At other times, it's down to a news story or viral clip that grips the nation.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H. Schmidt
Knut the baby polar bear
Perhaps the most famous of all German celebrity animals is the polar bear Knut. Born in 2006, Knut was rejected by his mother and had to be hand-reared by zookeepers. He brought the Berlin Tierpark zoo widespread media attention and even appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine. However, Knut died from a suspected brain tumor in 2011.
Image: AP/Archiv Zoo Berlin
Heidi the cross-eyed opossum
The internet era might help explain the popularity of Heidi the cross-eyed opossum, who won an army of fans after she was featured on a local television clip that went viral. Heidi's distinctive eye condition was thought to be due to fatty deposits behind her eyes. At the time Heidi was euthanized because of old age in 2011, she had three times more Facebook fans than Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H. Schmidt
Tuffi the tumbling elephant
Back in the 1950s, Tuffi the elephant became an overnight star. As a marketing ruse, a circus boss put the four-year-old pachyderm on a wagon of the overhead monorail in the city of Wuppertal. The animal panicked and bolted as the wagon moved, falling some 12 meters (40 feet) into the river Wupper. The incident is remembered here in a mural by the river. Tuffi lived on for decades, until 1989.
Image: Creative Commons/Atamari
Bulette the Berlin hippo
Bulette became a popular attraction at the Berlin Zoological Garden, living to the ripe old age of 53. That made her Europe’s oldest hippo at the time she died in 2005, living a life 30 or 40 years longer than would be the case in the wild. Admittedly, she came from good stock. Her father Knautschke was the only large animal from the zoo to survive World War Two.
Image: picture-alliance/Berliner Kurier/P. Müller
Paul the octopus oracle
Paul shot to fame during the 2010 South Africa World Cup after correctly "predicting" the outcome of several Germany matches, as well as the final. Paul would be offered boxes containing tasty morsels and flags of the competing teams. When the clairvoyant cephalopod rightly indicated that Germany would lose to Spain in the semifinals, he was subject to death threats. Paul died later the same year.
Image: AP
Bruno the problem bear
Brown bears haven't lived in the wild in Germany since 1835. Bruno made headlines in May 2006, after wandering from a north Italian nature reserve to Bavaria. Bruno caused a stir when he began searching for food around houses and appeared to have lost any fear of humans. He was shot by hunters after attempts to catch him failed. As the photo shows, Bruno was later stuffed and wound up in a museum.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Kneffel
Yvonne the runaway cow
Bavaria was also the setting for another animal drama in 2011, when six-year-old brown dairy cow Yvonne escaped from her farm. The national daily tabloid Bild posted a 10,000-euro ($14,000) reward for her safe return. She was eventually rounded up and taken home. According to authorities, Yvonne "apparently got tired of the loneliness" and jumped over a fence to join a group of farm cows.