Animal Facility

International Laboratory Animal Day on 24 April: Our employees in the field of animal care talk about their profession and everyday life

Animal House Team

All of us in the Animal House team share a love of animals. This is not a contradiction to the job, but essential to ensuring the best possible care and attention.

Benita

As a future animal carer, a loving relationship with our animals is very important to me. When the animals give us their affection, the daily work is stress-free and harmonious for both people and animals.

Fabienne

I appreciate the multifaceted and varied work at the animal house. The care and husbandry is constantly evolving for the benefit of the animals. Looking behind the scenes of a research institute gives me a better understanding of why basic research with animals is so important.

Martin

As a career changer, I learned to appreciate the profession of an animal keeper in research so much that I decided to further qualify as an animal keeper specialising in research and clinic. Laboratory animals have already provided us with many insights and thus also therapies/medicines. To ensure that good quality results can continue to be achieved, it is a personal concern of mine to give the animals a good life.

André

Every day, our work begins with an inspection. We check every single cage and see how each animal is doing. This duty is even required of us by the Animal Welfare Act. The task requires a high level of concentration.

Petra

Unfortunately, animal testing is still essential, but in my role as Animal Welfare Officer, I always keep the welfare and protection of the individual animal in mind by advising staff and acting as an internal supervisor.

Declaration of principle on animal research

In its declaration of principle on the subject of animal research, the Max Planck Society emphasises the indispensability of animal research for biomedical research, but also acknowledges the special responsibility of each individual scientist for the animals used in research and the ethical issues associated with experiments carried out on sentient beings. The gain in insight expected from an experiment must be weighed against the harm inflicted on animals – an evaluation for which there are no universally accepted standards.

In its White Paper, the Max Planck Society has adopted a series of measures designed to achieve the best possible compromise between the obligation to protect the animals used for research and the need to perform research with sentient beings in order to gain insights into the processes supporting the life of organisms. These measures include:

• strengthening the culture of care for the animals; this is to be achieved through improved coordination of animal welfare within the MPG, while at the same time maintaining the highest quality of science
• Further refinement and reduction of use animals in research - scientific insights should be used to reduce the number of experiments and minimize the potential harm inflicted on the animals 
• transparent presentation of animal research for the general public
• research aimed at improving the implementation of the 3 R principle
• research on the living conditions of research animals, their social behaviour, perception of pain, consciousness and their right for life
• training of all employees working with animals in animal ethics