University of Tübingen: Research on crows was officially approved at all times

On the occasion of the announcement from “Doctors against Animal Experiments eV” and the “German Legal Society for Animal Welfare Law”, the University of Tübingen declares:

The claim that animal experiments are carried out at the University of Tübingen without a permit is incorrect. Professor Andreas Nieder’s neurobiological research on crows was officially approved at all times in accordance with the strict standards of the Animal Welfare Act. Right from the start, the animal experiment permit also included the use of crows taken from nature (for example because of illness) for breeding or as experimental animals. The acceptance of the animals given by the Bird Protection Center Mössingen and other facilities was approved. These were animals that could no longer have been released into the wild.

The Department of Animal Physiology at the university has been working with crows in the field of brain research for more than ten years. As a neurobiologist, Professor Nieder researches the way nerve cells work in the brain with the aim of finding out how cognitive functions arise. His work on crows awareness was named one of the 2020 American Association for the Advancement of Science as one of the Research Breakthroughs of the Year. Methodologically, invasive interventions are essential for this. As a rule, breeding animals are used for this.