The trial of two employees charged with mistreatment of, and causing serious injury to, animals at Vivotecnia – the Madrid testing laboratory exposed in our 2021 investigation – begins on Thursday 7 May.

We will be in court in Madrid for both days of the trial, on Thursday and Friday.

Even though just two people are charged with these offences, we believe that the entire animal research industry is effectively on trial in this groundbreaking case.

Vivotecnia is a research laboratory which uses monkeys, rabbits, dogs, pigs and rodents in product safety tests for the cosmetic, chemical and agrochemical industries.

The trial follows the investigation by our member organisation, Cruelty Free International, after it was approached by a whistleblower using the pseudonym Carlota Saorsa, who took hours of undercover footage over an 18-month period. That footage was released in April 2021, to yet again revealed the shocking reality of how animals are treated in laboratories and sparked public condemnation and global media coverage.

The findings of the investigation showed beyond doubt that using animals in this way is inherently inhumane, even when conducted lawfully.

The two defendants, Carlos Martin Llanos and Ruben Cabrero Minguela, are charged with mistreating animals, causing injuries seriously damaging their health, under Spanish law. If found guilty, they face imprisonment. Both deny the charges.

Carlos Martin Llanos is accused of taking blood by inserting a needle into the eye of a live rat with either no or not enough anaesthetic. This procedure, called ‘retro-orbital blood extraction’, can cause severe suffering, and the Comunidad de Madrid (the city’s local authority) acknowledged that ‘this is not a recommended technique for animal welfare [reasons]’ – even when done with full anaesthetic.

Rubén Cabrero Minguela is accused of failing to secure a rabbit in a restraint device whilst injecting a sedative into her ear, causing the rabbit to fall to the floor, screaming. Rabbits do not make sounds unless in severe pain. Minguela may have mistakenly injected the cartilage in the rabbit’s ear, instead of a vein, which is very painful for rabbits. The fall either killed the rabbit or made her lose consciousness. The incident was entirely avoidable.

We are one of a number of complainants in the case, brought by the Public Prosecutor. We believe that far more charges should have been brought, including against senior Vivotecnia management, but the examining judge chose these two, perhaps as sample charges.

According to the most recent official statistics, 1,098,870 experiments were carried out on animals in Spain in 2023, making them the fourth biggest user of animals in science in the EU.

The investigation was the subject of a documentary, ‘Infiltrada en el Bunker’, released worldwide by Prime Video España in June 2025.

Our Director of Science and Regulatory Affairs, Dr Emma Grange, said: “We believe that far more offences took places than reflected by these two charges. But, if the reality is that everything at Vivotecnia was legal, that represents an even greater problem. It would reveal that society tolerates horrific cruelty to animals in laboratories on a routine basis.

“Our investigation uncovered a horrendous mix of suffering and cruelty in the way animals are housed, handled and abused in toxicity tests, as well as, we believe, countless breaches of Spanish and EU legislation. It is unthinkable that this should still be happening in Europe.

“The case is a stark reminder of the importance of the European Commission’s roadmap to phase-out animal testing for chemical safety assessments, which is expected to be published this year. We need bold strategies and clear implementation plans, with concrete timelines and milestones, to work effectively to end this abuse and suffering. Over 9 million animals were used in laboratories in the EU and Norway in 2023, but European citizens want this to stop. Europe must now evolve past cruel and outdated animal testing and end the suffering found at Vivotecnia and elsewhere.”