Activists sue after Austrian pigs buried alive in snow

19 January 2010

VIENNA — Animal rights groups are pressing charges over an Austrian experiment in which 29 pigs were buried alive under deep snow to study human survival chances in avalanches, prosecutors said Monday.

An Austrian and a German animal rights group filed a joint suit against the authors of the experiment, claiming it was cruel, said public prosecutor Wilfried Siegele.

Prosecutors in Innsbruck would now decide whether to proceed with the case.

The experiment was actually called off after only a few hours last Friday for fear of public protests.

Nevertheless, 10 of the 29 pigs died.

Animal rights groups condemned it as "bizarre" and "macabre" and activists had gathered in Tyrol's Oetz valley, where the research was being conducted by the medical faculty of Innsbruck University and the emergency medicine centre at Bolzano, Italy.

The scientists, who had wanted to study the effect of air pockets that form under snow during avalanches on victims' survival chances, argued that the pigs were sedated and that the authorities had given their approval.

One in five people hit by an avalanche found themselves with an air pocket, and the pig experiment could allow the development of new life-saving rescue techniques, scientists said.

Read the full article

Back to latest news.