Belarus State University Minsk
Faculty of Ecological Medicine
International Sakharov Environmental Institute
University lecturer Viktor Lemeshonak, with whom we had successfully collaborated on the transition at the Polessky State University in Pinsk, had moved to Minsk and immediately began advocating for animal-free education at his new position.
His positive experiences found a receptive audience in Prof. Igor Buchenkov, head of the Faculty of Ecological Medicine. Already in 2007, the head of the Department of Pathophysiology, Prof. Irina Merkulova, had signed an agreement with InterNICHE and eliminated animal experiments in her course. In 2015, our Ukrainian project partner Dimitrij Leporskij gave several presentations on humane education during a bioethics conference at the Sakharov Institute. Taken together, these positive experiences convinced Prof. Buchenkov.
Many animal experiments were no longer in his course already, as the animal-free methods introduced in 2007 at the Department of Pathophysiology were being used across different disciplines. To now draw a final line under this chapter and fully eliminate animal use in education, an agreement was signed in May 2017. During his visit, Dimitrij Leporskij handed over a laptop and a number of CD-ROMs and DVDs.
760 mice, rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, and cattle per year will now no longer be killed. These experiments previously included studying the effects of radiation on rat tissue, experiments on frog nerves and hearts, as well as immunological experiments such as inducing autoimmune encephalomyelitis (inflammation of the brain and spinal cord) in rabbits and mice. That is now history.
Prof. Igor Buchenkov (right) and Dimitrij Leporskij at the agreement signing.