Sir

Your article “Animal rights activists turn the screw” stated that the Deutsche Tierschutzbund [a German animal welfare organization] would “initiate court cases and injunctions against researchers” if animal protection were included in the German constitution (Nature 396, 505; 1998). Contrary to this statement, the Deutsche Tierschutzbund has no intention of doing so.

The proposed change to the constitution aims to reinforce a 1986 amendment to the German animal welfare law that introduced a requirement for licensing procedures for experiments to include an ethical evaluation process. The need for this change arose after the Constitutional Court decided in 1994 that such ethical evaluation is unconstitutional, because freedom of research is embodied in the constitution, but animal welfare is not.

No animal welfare organization had brought a court case against researchers before 1994, so why should this change if the requirement for ethical evaluation is simply reinforced? Animal welfare organizations will find it hard to take scientists to court or to have licences revoked: the licensing procedures will remain confidential, and the decision of the authorities will rest on criteria that are not heard at court.