Students in Russia are refusing to tolerate the violation of the animal experimentation rules that occur at the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University. Despite being illegal, students are being forced to conduct horrific experiments, including notorious experiments on live frogs conducted without anaesthesia.

The students are campaigning for the observance of Russian work regulations of animal testing and for the empowerment of students to choose whether to take part in tests on animals or to use humane alternative methods. They also want the Bioethics course to be returned to the second year of education so that students have the opportunity to examine the issues surrounding vivisection before choosing which courses to take. The administration of the faculty refuses to take into account the ethical views of the students and creates an information barrier that leaves the students ignorant of the many innovative alternative methods in education, even though they are accepted in many universities around the world.

The Dean's office at the university has even started victimising the rebels: in October 2007, one of the students who had refused to take part in inhumane experiments was expelled in spite of his good progress.

The demands of the students are as follows:

1. To give the students of the Faculty of Biology of MSU the opportunity to choose whether to take part in experiments or to undergo practical training by using alternative methods. Development and adoption of innovative methods is a formal duty of the university.
2. To eliminate all the violations of experiments that contradict "Rules of working with the use of experimental animals" at the Faculty of Biology and, in particular, to make the use of anaesthesia obligatory in all kinds of experiments carried out at the faculty. Currently anaesthesia is not used at all.
3. To return the course of Biological Ethics to the 2nd year. This course is extremely important before choosing what to study.
4. Reinstate Belousoff Roman as a student and give him an opportunity to eliminate the academic failure caused by illegal expulsion.

The administration of the University wants to halt the students' demands by repressing legitimate protest.

You can send letters of support to: humane.education@gmail.com

http://www.studentsagainstanimalcruelty.org.uk/news/items/MSUstudents.php