Sara d'Angelo - Vitadacani

In June 2022, Porcikomodi, the sanctuary run by Vitadacani in northern Italy, welcomed eight young Göttingen minipigs from a major research center after they had completed the experimental phase.

These pigs, belonging to a breed patented by Marshall Farm, were destined for a future that had already been written. As is almost always the case for animals used in laboratories, their story was supposed to end in silence. But, for once, things turned out differently.

We named them Undi, Will, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Robin, Max and Nancy. To us, they became the "Stranger Things", a small miracle of freedom born against all odds.

Since 1998, Vitadacani has been fighting against animal experimentation and, through the DL4 Project, has been working to offer a second chance to animals coming from research laboratories.

Over nearly thirty years, we have welcomed more than 1,500 dogs, thousands of mice, rats, rabbits and guinea pigs, 14 macaques and several pigs.

We rescue them, provide them with care and shelter, and work to support their rehabilitation.

Every liberation is both fragile and extraordinary, because animals rarely leave laboratories alive.

Faced with the millions of animals used in scientific research every year, we know that what we do is small and insufficient. Yet we believe that every life saved is an act of resistance against a system that turns individuals into tools and makes their suffering invisible.