Green Hill is a beagle breeding farm owned by Marshall BioResources, it’s located in Montichiari (Italy) since 2001. In 2010 Morini (another Italian farm which used to breed animals for research) was closed down after the protests of animal rights activists, so since 2010 Green Hill has been the only producer of laboratory beagles and its profit increased.

April 2010 - a group of activists set up an organization: Coordinamento Fermare Green Hill with the aim to block the expansion of the farm, they started the campaign called Salviamo i cani di Green Hill (Let’s save Green Hill’s dogs); on the 24th April they made the first demonstration against Green Hill. On 30th of April the good news came: the project of expansion of G.H. was blocked.

May 2010 - another group of activists set up another organization: Comitato Montichiari Contro Green Hill, they helped the others in their fight against Green Hill.

Green Hill remained a local problem, until some activists by Coordinamento Fermare G.H. occupied the roof of Green Hill (on 14th October 2011) VIEW THE VIDEO. Then Striscia la Notizia, an Italian TV show, made a special news about G.H. so this farm became popular all over Italy and a lot of demonstrations occurred with great participation of people.

On the 28th of April 2012 during one of the demonstration some of the activists overcame the enclosure and liberated some of the dogs ENJOY THE VIDEO. At the end of the demonstration 12 people were arrested for the theft of the dogs, they will be released some days after, the Marshalls asked for a huge compensation (250,000 €) maintaining that the assault of the activists contaminated the farm that they asserted was aseptic, and that some puppies died after the attack, one poisoned by some disinfectant he drank and others because the activists would take them away from the heating.

After the crime an inspection inside G.H. was made by lawyers and experts in order to verify the damages that the Marshalls’ complained about, and guess what… during the inspection a lot of strange situations were found, in fact the Marshalls didn’t have a vet certificate demonstrating the death of the puppies as they said; the farm wasn’t so aseptic as they claimed in fact the inspectors weren’t given masks in order not to contaminate the place, and in the second shed they examined they found G.H. workers were not wearing the proper precautions (note the fact that the aseptic place is not required by Italian law for lab animals farms, probably the Marshalls asserted that the place was aseptic in order to claim for a huge compensation of the damages); and it not over, besides all that the farm didn’t have any control of temperature and humidity, the law states that lab animals must live in specific conditions e.g. between 16-21°C, and there was not even a thermometer!), the law also requires silence in order not to stress the animals, but there were 500 dogs in one shed, so there couldn’t be silence inside. The document of the examination states that G.H. breeding licence should have been revoked 5 years before when the routine control revealed a temperature of 26°C (when the max. temperature allowed is 21°C).

On 18th July 2012, thanks to that inspection, G.H. was seized by the Italian State Forestry Department and G.H owners are charged with animal cruelty, in fact in that occasion about 100 dogs were found in the refrigerator, they were killed because they had defects like dermatitis and couldn't be sold to laboratories. 

 

In four days all the dogs (2700) were taken out of the farm, examined by vets and then given to people willing to adopt them (actually the dogs are not adopted yet, in fact if the Marshalls want the dogs back and the judges consent to their request, people who keeps the dog should give them back to the Marshalls).

Now G.H. is not seized anymore because the police has already examined the farm and all the documents, both trials (one against the activists who liberated the dogs and the other against G.H. owners for animal cruelty) are still going on. G.H. could start breeding dogs again if the judges give them the permission.

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In February 2013 Marshalls asked to have their dogs back, fortunately the judges decided to leave the dog with the new families. They made another request, the verdict should arrive on the 14th of May 2013, but the Marshalls confirm that probably they won't have the dogs back. A recent article reports that Marshall Farm lost 1,775,603 € of profit because of the block of G.H. business, so they will dismiss 15 of the 17 workers of G.H. on the 30th June 2013.

 

UPDATE - 2nd July 2013: BREAKING NEWS! Ex Green Hill dogs WON'T be back to Green Hill! READ MORE

UPDATE - 1st August 2013: VICTORY! GREEN HILL CLOSED FOREVER! READ MORE