Since 1981, year of its foundation, OIPA has been one of the leading associations in the animal rights area. Here OIPA’s most important actions and achievements.

2021 – 2022

  • OIPA joins and supports the following campaigns: ban octopus farming launched by the Aquatic Animals Alliance; stop the cruel culling of chicks and ducklings in Europe; ‘EU for Animals’ asking for a European Commissioner for animal welfare; the ECI ‘Fur Free Europe’ to ban fur farms and farmed fur products from the European market (2022).
  • OIPA launches the project “Emergency Ukraine” just after the outbreak of war to help animals in need (2022).
  • Campaign ‘You have fun – They suffer’ to point out the condition of stray animals in many countries (2022).
  • OIPA and PETA protest against Formula 1 sponsored of the cruel Iditarod race (2022).
  • OIPA is partner of the European Vegan Summit (2022).
  • Volunteers in Italy rush to help animals after flash floods hit Central Italy (2022).
  • OIPA sponsored the first educational programme on animal welfare in Tulcea, Romania (2022).
  • OIPA member of the Global Waste Cleaning Network and the Aquatic Animal Alliance (2022).
  • OIPA becomes observer of the World Federation for Animals and signs the Plant Based Treaty (2022).
  • Volunteers of OIPA Italy in Sardinia bring food to stray and animals in distress after the outbreak of wildfires on the island (2021).
  • On behalf of the Global Greyhound Coalition, OIPA calls on the US Congress to support the greyhound protection act (2021).
  • OIPA launches the project ‘Save a Stray’ to help stray animals abused and neglected in many countries of the world (2021).
  • OIPA joins the European Citizens Initiative ‘Stop Finning – Stop the trade’ to end the lucrative business of shark fins from Europe (2021).
  • Campaign on London’s buses ‘Holiday for you – Hell for us – Ethical Travel’
  • OIPA supports the ECI ‘Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics’ to accelerate the transition to a science that bans the use of animals in research, regulatory testing and education (2021).
  • Petition against the cruelty and abuse on stray animals in Kazakhstan (2021).
  • OIPA Italy animals control officers cooperate with the State Forestry corps in another case of animal hoarding (2021).
  • Campaign against the purchase of pet during Christmas time (2021).
  • Representative of India in Maharashtra releases two documentaries on stray animals (2021).
  • OIPA co-signs a letter asking Tunisian authorities to stop the mass killing of stray dogs (2021).

2019 – 2020

  • OIPA Italy volunteers rescue a Neapolitan mastiff mistreated and in a very bad health conditions (2020).
  • Launch of the petition to end the abuse of monkeys in the Thai coconut industry (2020).
  • OIPA Kenya launches an anti-rabies vaccination programme and spay/neuter assistance (2020).
  • OIPA supports Animal Lebanon after the explosion in Beirut (2020).
  • Campaign #GlowingGone to raise awareness on corals attempts to survive (2020).
  • OIPA Cameroon launches the first mobile veterinary clinic in the country (2020).
  • Petition against the killing of stray animals in Dubai (2020).
  • OIPA Italy volunteers rescue a mum with four puppies closed in a carton box (2020).
  • OIPA India battles against the use of glue traps for rodents (2020).
  • OIPA signs with other 150 ngos the request to include animal welfare in the COVID-19 recovery policy at the special session of the UN General Assembly (2020)
  • OIPA and other Ngos press the South Africa Government to ban captive lion breeding industry (2020).
  • OIPA Italy animal control officers rescue two puppies from a van ready to go to Morocco in the port of Genoa (2019).
  • Launch of the petition against the killing of stray dogs in Azerbaijan (2019).
  • OIPA Cameroon launches the environmental protection and animal welfare education programme in 14 primary schools in the West region (2019.)
  • Protest in Italy against vivisection experiments, the ‘Light-up’ project, on macaques at the university of Turin (2019).
  • OIPA Chile filed an animal welfare complaint reporting the use of pointers for dog sledding trips
  • OIPA animal control officers in Ravenna, Italy, rescue 9 cats locked inside a home owned by a person with hoarding disorder
  • OIPA animal control officers in Brescia, Italy, seize a senior dog locked in a garage with no windows, entirely covered with multiple layers of hairs, feces and dirt
  • OIPA Cameroon at the Africa Animal Welfare Conference organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (2019).

2017 – 2018

  • OIPA launches the “STOP VIRAL ANIMAL CRUELTY” project, allowing people to report videos or pictures on the Internet showing violent and cruel treatment of animals, by filling up a special form (2017).
  • Conference on illegal trafficking of puppies held in Milan, Italy (2017).
  • “My fur is toxic“ a video is projected in Milan as a protest against the international exhibition on fur (2017).
  • Animal control officers in Udine save from an illegal slaughterhouse over 100 animals (2017).
  • OIPA realizes in Turin a project to sterilize otters (2018).
  • OIPA stands in favour of the bear KJ2 denouncing its cruel killing and setting out the intention to stand in a legal court if necessary (2018).
  • Conference at the UN headquarters in Geneva on the “Abolition of animal experiments in the field of cosmetics: a debate on the EU parliament resolution” (2018).
  • OIPA takes part in the campaign Bloody FIFA 2018, set up to stop the killing of stray dogs in Russia during Football World Cup (2018).
  • “Virginia’s dream” project in Cameroon: thanks to a fundraising FB campaign, a project of forest conservation has been set up (planting 1000 trees, monitor their growth and sensitize local population on environmental issues) (2018).
  • Thanks to OIPA India, the Court issues a revolutionary sentence declaring the entire animal kingdom legal entity “(2018).
  • A rabies and distemper vaccination campaign for dogs takes place in Cameroon (2018).
  • The first veterinary hospital opens in Kosovo thanks to OIPA and Stray CoCo (2018).
  • OIPA’s Animal Guards seized 52 puppies from an international illegal puppy trade in Southern Italy.
  • Tail docking and ear dropping for aesthetic purposes: After a year of investigations, OIPA animal control officers in Rome, Italy, have reported 30 dogs owners and 4 veterinaries to the judicial authority, charging them with the following crimes: mistreatment of animals, forgery, use of forged documents, complicity in a crime (2018).
  • Manifestation against the Yulin festival (Dog Meat Festival) in Milan (2018).
  • OIPA India plays a key role in the decision to ban the import of sealskin to the country, becoming the 37th nation to pass the ban, after the Directorate General of Foreign Trade communicated the prohibition in a recent notification (2018).

2015 – 2016

  • OIPA supports the campaign “Stray Dogs Ploiesti” for the sterilization of dogs in Romania (2015) and supported the establishment of a veterinary office in Romania. The clinic, run by Romanian Stray Dogs Ploiesti, OIPA’s member league, offers affordable prices for members of the local community and practices free sterilization both on stray and family owned dogs (2015).
  • OIPA helped a shelter in Albania after a severe flood. Thanks to OIPA’s support, Animal Rescue Albania, OIPA’s member league, bought food and paid for the veterinary hospital stays (2015).
  • The comeback of the “He loves me, he eat me” campaign, with OIPA billboards in the subways in Rome, Milan, Turin and Naples to raise awareness about the slaughter of lambs for Easter.
  • OIPA officially opens “Cat Village”, the first facility for cats in Lombardy, Italy. The facility, authorized by the Local Veterinary Company, can also accommodate amphibians, reptiles, ornamental birds and rodents (2015).
  • “Botticelle” (horse-drawn carriages) in Rome: OIPA, together with other associations, gathers more than 100,000 signatures from Roman citizens to abolish them: double the initially required number (2015).
  • OIPA launches the Christmas campaign “Don’t Shop, Adopt”- promotion of adoptions rather than the purchase of animals. (2016).

2013 – 2014

  • After the campaign “Save the rabbit! Protest against cosmetic tests” launched by OIPA JAVA (Japan Anti-Vivisection Association), Sisheido, the main Japanese beauty firm, announces it will end tests on animals for cosmetics and semi-pharmaceutical products (2013).
  • Actions against the massacre of strays in Brasov, Romania, where 30.000 dogs have already been killed on the occasion of the European Youth Olympic Festival (2013).
  • Diverse actions against the practice of vivisection in USA Universities. The University of Minnesota Medical School gives up vivisection on sheep; Idaho State University (ISU), seven days after the launch of OIPA’s campaign, the university announces it will end the use of living dogs coming from a local shelter in its ATLS (Advanced Trauma Life Support) courses;  the New York Medical College ceases vivisection on dogs during cardiology courses (2007); the Brody School of Medicine of the  East Carolina University declares not a single living pig will be used in the future during surgery courses (2008); the  University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey’s (UMDNJ’s) University Hospital give up the use of living pigs during ATLS courses (2009); after a long campaign, Nepal decides it will close the breeding farm of experimental monkeys doomed to biomedical research in the USA (2009); after the protests, the Missouri-Heartland Regional Medical Center (HRMC) replaces living cats with mannequins (2009); the University of Michigan and the University of South Alabama announce, following OIPA’s campaign, they will end the use of living pigs during ATLS classes (2009); the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) affirms, following a long protest campaign, it will end the use of stray cats coming from the city of Odessa in its training classes (2009); the Medical College of Wisconsin (USA) announces it will give up the use of living animals (pigs, frogs, rabbits and rats) during physiology courses (2010);  the Case Western Reserve University, Ohio, affirms it will end experiments on dogs, cats and ferrets: it is the last USA university carrying out vivisection on dogs. Most of USA medical schools, including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, have now replaced the use of living animals in physiology, pharmacology and surgery classes.
  • Varied actions against vivisection – conferences, debates, publication of articles- have been undertaken by OIPA’s delegations in Brazil (important action against the cruel neurological tests carried out by Dr Pimentel a Belo Horizonte), Peru, Germany, France, Belgium (2013).
  • The OIPA officially joins the campaign STOP VIVISECTION that aims to seek a new European Directive on animal testing (2013).
  • Consultative status with the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (2014).
  • Thanks to strong protests of citizens and to the pressure from associations, including OIPA International, Chile’s Ministry of Agriculture announced that it would not enact a newly amended hunting law that authorized the hunting of dogs in rural areas of the country (2014).
  • Patronage of the film “Belle & Sebastien”. Thanks to this sponsorship, OIPA supported the activities of rescue and recovery of dogs without a family (2014).
  • Together with the Italian Forestry Department, OIPA’s volunteers took action for the seizure and custody of more than 400 puppies from Eastern Europe. The stand-off was taken care of by OIPA, and also foster care for the puppies and the finding of a second home for them, together with the Forestry Department (2014).
  • Killing of Daniza: a complaint lodged against Italy at the European Commission. In September, OIPA, in collaboration with I-Care Italy, Green Italy, Association Animalisti, Leal and Green Federation, filed a complaint to the European Commission against the Italian Republic (Ministry of Environment, the Autonomous Province Trento) for the killing of the bear Daniza. In December, OIPA sent an opposition to the request for action on the complaint filed against the province of Trento, opposition partially upheld in February 2015. (2014).
  • Flooding in the Balkans: OIPA supports volunteers involved in animal rescue: food was provided for dogs and cats in Zaniga, Bosnia. In Croatia, food, medicine and veterinary care were provided (2014).
  • “He loves me, He eat me” campaign with posters in the subways of Milan and Rome. The Easter campaign invites people to reflect on the difference between dog or cat puppies and a baby lamb: there are none – both are living beings that live, suffer and love (2014).

2011 – 2012

  • After a long campaign, NASA gives up the exposition of dozens of monkeys to harmful radiations (2011).
  • After the requests made by OIPA to the Balinese Government, Bali ends the killing of strays and starts an anti-rabies vaccination program for 400 000 dogs in collaborations with the Bali Animal Welfare Association (2011).
  • Actions against the killing of strays in Spain and in other European countries. Report of the horrors of the Spanish perreras (kennels) where dogs are often euthanized after having been left with no water or food; OIPA, together with other associations for animal protection, lodges 112 683 signatures at the European Parliament to ask the definition of a new legal frame for the protection of pets and strays in the EU.
  • Brescia public prosecutor’s office orders the forfeiture of Green Hill, the breeding farm of experimental beagles, as a consequence of some the irregularities noticed during the inspection carried out on the 30th September 2011 by OIPA’s guards and of the many protests of the associations for animal protection (2012).
  • Campaign against the killing of strays in Azerbaijan, report on the massacre of stray dogs in the capital Baku on the occasion of the event Eurovision 2012 and violation of the European Convention for animal protection that Azerbaijan ratified in 2007 (2012).
  • Actions against the massacre of dogs in Ukraine on the occasion of the European football cup 2012.
  • Thanks to OIPA India, India decides to forbid the import of fox fur, chinchilla, mink, reptile skin and exotic animals (2012).

2009 – 2010

  • The Monash University, the biggest University of Australia, affirms it will put an end to the dissection of living rabbits carried out during physiology classes (2009).
  • OIPA’s call against the use of living animals during the professional post-degree classes in ATLS (Advanced Trauma Life Support) in Pisa. The region of Tuscany announces that “starting from now not a single animal will be used during such courses in Tuscany and speaks out in favour of already existing alternative methods” (2009).
  • Varied actions at the European Parliament in Brussels; opposition to the European directive approved on the 5th May 2009 on animal experimentation. July 2009, the European Commission, in collaboration with the industry of cosmetics, allocates 50 millions of euros for a research project aiming at the approval of alternative methods to animal experimentation.
  • OIPA intervention in favour of a spaying/neutering program in Selangor, Malaysia, where 300 stray dogs have been abandoned on desert islands; an important spaying/neutering campaign on a large scale is launched (2009).
  • OIPA support the proposition of the Greek Minister for Agricultural Development  for the introduction of a new legislation forbidding the torture and killing of strays (2009).
  • Following the report of the transfer of 50 dogs from the USA to Scotland and following more than 22 000 protest letters, Lufthansa announces a new policy prohibiting the transport of experimental dogs and cats (2010).
  • The airports of Montichiari and Verona announce they will cease the transport of experimental animals as a consequence of the many e-mails of protest and picketing (2010).
  • After an eight-year campaign which involved OIPA as well as other associations in defence of animal rights, the beagle breeding farm Morini shuts down (2010).

2000-2008

  • Experiments carried out on cats at the Department of Medicine of the University of Milan are revealed; the tabling of a complaint to the magistrature of Milan and several investigations, controls and picketing cause the end of the tests.
  •  After the many e-mails of protest, the Chinese Government decides it will end the “cleansing campaign” that has led to the killing of many dogs (2006).
  • Thanks to an alert launched by OIPA against the killing of experimental animals employed in an Israeli lab, Israel enacts two laws which foresee the progressive abolition of tests on animals for cosmetics (2007).
  • Giza (Egypt) gives up, after receiving thousands of e-mails of protest, the program of killing of strays decreed by the local authorities and adopts a TNR program (Trap, Neutering, Release) (2007).
  • As a consequence of an international campaign, Russian authorities decide they will end the cleansing campaign of strays and start a neutering/spaying program; a new vet clinic is opened in Moscow to give assistance to strays (2007).
  • After OIPA’s international campaign, the South Korean Government enacts a new law in defence of animals which foresees the prohibition of carrying out experiments on strays and on dogs who have served human beings, such as police dogs and dogs serving blind people. Furthermore, the National Institute for Toxicological Research is collaborating with other countries to introduce alternatives to animal experimentation (2008).
  • The Serb government introduces a new norm for a more humane treatment of strays (2008). Thanks to the collaboration with OIPA and SAV, a national project for the spaying/neutering of strays is launched.
  • OIPA intervention against the massacre of stray dogs in China; the Chinese Government  decides in favour of an anti-rabies vaccination for 700 000 dogs.

1999-2001

  • After a long campaign, the delegation OIPA Italy obtains the end of the cruel experiments carried out on beagles at the University of Pavia.
  • International action against the massacre in Asian countries of dogs and cats killed for their fur and action against the trade of quilts made of cat fur.

1994–1998

  • Action against cats’ vivisection at the Anatomy and Physiology Institutes of the University of Lausanne through press conferences in Lausanne and Bern, motions tabled by two national counsellors and launch of a petition that collects 133 515 signatures; report of the vivisectionists and of the Federal Council that supports these experiments financed with public money. Great success: the authorities order the end of the experiments and the closure of the cats’ stabling. For the first time in Switzerland it is ordered the end of vivisection experiments and the closure of a stabling as a consequence of anti-vivisection actions.
  • Actions of OIPA Italy against the poisoning of stray cats with thallium sulphate in Croatia.
  • Different interventions and awareness campaigns against the killing of stray dogs and cats in Serbia and in the Balkans and request to the United Nations for the approval of a new resolution in favour of animals’ rights and their wellbeing as living beings.
  • Report in the press of some therapies deriving from animal experimentations and particularly cruel for patients, such as animal cells genetically manipulated and injected in ill people.
  • Production and distribution of several videotapes that show the atrocities and the damages of vivisection, like the three videotapes VHS “THE MASSACRE OF INNOCENTS 1,2,3” and “THE MALEDICTION OF VIVISECTION”.

1993-1994

  • Action Diana against the transport of primates to labs; launch of a petition and interventions at the UN; report of some airways companies and of the capture methods of monkeys.
  • New inquiry on breeding farms of experimental dogs and cats; an article published on OIPA’s magazine helps the sentence towards a French breeder.
  • OIPA Italy delegation reports the former Minister of Health De Lorenzo and the former President of the Commission on Drugs Poggiolini for massacre, endangering of public safety and epidemic for the distribution of harmful vaccines and drugs.

1991–1992

  • Action against the terrible neurophysiology experiments carried out on cats at the University of Bologna; charge against the vivisectionists involved, followed by the tabling of the interpellations of some Italian MPs,  press conferences, an international demonstration in Bologna; important echoes on television and in the press. OIPA obtains the end of the experiments one year and a half before the date established by the original protocol.
  • Charge against some vivisectionists of the Institute for Brain Research of Zurich with reference to experiments on monkeys.
  • Research on carcinogenic substances of pharmacopoeia and collection of data.
  • Action against the import of experimental beagles with cut vocal chords from the USA; launch of a new petition and collection of 30 000 signatures, press conference in Bellinzona and intervention on TV with the beagle Gina.
  • Thanks to the delegation OIPA Italy, it is enacted the Italian law 413/93 on conscientious objection to animal experimentation for students of scientific faculties.

1982-1983

  • Interventions at the European Council and at the European Parliament against the Strasbourg Convention which legalises vivisection in EU countries.
  • Report against the vivisectionists of the University of Parma due to tests of experimental neurophysiology on cats.
  • OIPA launches the historic action against the cruel experiments on Biozement carried out on monkeys at the Inselspital of Bern and on dogs at the Tierspital of Bern.
  • Launch of the campaign OIPA for the third world and report to the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights of nine multinationals for the export of harmful drugs to the third world.
  • Press conferences in Bern, Lausanne, Lugano, Zurich, Milan, Paris, Geneva, where the damages provoked by products tested on animals are exposed.
  • Report of the import of beagles from the American Marshall-Farm carried out by the multinational Sandoz and of the export of cats carried out by Ciba-Geigy (Sisslen breeding farm) for German and Swedish labs.
  • OIPA reveals the horrible backstage of experimental animals traffic: cats and dogs, mostly stolen and ill, are crammed in lorries in Italy and transported to German and Swiss labs.
  • Actions against the massacre of dogs in the Philippines and in Haiti and against the massacre of cats and dogs in Korea through interventions at embassies and consulates. Public sensitization on the stray dogs of Suez, Romania, Poland and Beijing.

1982

  • Report against CHUV, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, of Lausanne, followed the year after by a charge against the Anatomy Institute of Lausanne. It is the first report against vivisectionists in Switzerland with reference to the damages of vivisection on public health. Through this report OIPA has drawn Swiss population’s attention both to the atrocities of vivisection and to its scientific failure. For the first time, a vivisection lab is involved in a case by an antivivisection league through petitions, reports, leaflets and conferences.
  • OIPA launches another memorable action against the Institute of Physiology of the University of Lausanne which is closed for three months and put under investigation by the authorities.
  • These actions are accompanied by investigations on the traffic of lab animals (actions against the kennel of Corcelles-le-Jorat, canton VD, and unmasking of the trafficker Fritz Lanz, who was buying dogs to sell them to vivisection labs). Some of the channels for the trade of cats and dogs imported from abroad are interrupted and traffickers unmasked.
  • Interventions at Chiasso customs to avoid the transfer of experimental animals, such as the intervention against the transfer of 30 beagle puppies sent by Madorin to Farmitalia-Carlo Erba. OIPA charges Madorin breeding farm.
  • Actions against goods tested on animals (pesticides, detergents, food additives, colorants, etc.), through the publication of proofs and documents on the damages deriving from synthetic cosmetics.  Following a sensitisation campaign against perfumes containing animal extracts, many companies give up this kind of production.
  • Actions against cell therapies deriving from sheep foetus cells. After years of public awakening, it is learned that some freeze-dried “alive” cell products have been withdrawn from the market and forbidden.
  • Actions against genetic manipulation (e.g. Lab of Quarino, Canton Ticino) and actions against experimental animals breeding farms (Morini, Charles River, Madorin, ecc.).
  • Participation in public debates, conferences, interviews on radio and TV in Switzerland and abroad (Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Spain, UK, etc.) and exhibition of scientific material about vivisection through stands, conferences, tape projections and debates.