As the debate about the rights and wrongs of animal testing rumbles on, a growing number of centres caring for scientific research 'survivors' are sprouting up in Italy.
Most laboratory animals die during the tests they are subject to or are put down at the end to avoid further suffering.
Few get out alive, but they face a bleak future because lab life leaves them ill-equipped to return to the wild or become family pets.
"The animals that come to us have big psychological problems," explained Pietro Liberati, the director of Vallevegan, a lab-animal sanctuary founded last year near Rome.
"They are so frightened of open spaces that they die of heart attacks if they are freed. What's more, they don't recognize predators and are unable to interact with members of their own species".
Liberati's facility in the town of Bellegra is one of seven Italian centres that seek to rehabilitate lab animals, like mice, guinea pigs, gerbils, rabbits and dogs.
The others are in Milan, Monza, Turin, Genoa, Parma and Trieste.
They all belong to I-Care, an international antivivisection organization that promotes and develops alternatives to animal testing.
The animals they treat have been rescued from laboratories closed for failing to comply with regulations or have been released after being surplus to requirements at the end of a project.
In some cases they may have been involved in non-terminal studies, such as behavioural research.
"The rehabilitation takes place in a number of stages," said Liberati.
"For the first few days we put the new arrival among other animals, but keep it in a cage so it feels safe.
"When its sense of smell and vision have developed, we put it into other bigger and bigger environments, first alone and then with other animals.
"But we don't let the animals go even when they have recovered because they can't defend themselves from predators. We keep them here or put them out to adoption".
In all the seven Italian centres have rehabilitated around 3,000 former lab animals up to now.
Vallevegan is also home to a few characters that have survived close calls away from labs, such as Geppo the goat.
"I was called by some people who saved him in the middle of the night on December 21," Liberati said.
"He'd been bought by a group who wanted to sacrifice him as part of a Celtic ritual. Instead he ended up here".
Ironically, Liberati's centre is based at a farmhouse formerly used by poachers.
"Now it's a place where we try to get the animals back to as much of a natural state as is possible," said Liberati.
"We are trying to open up new centres like this and coordinate lots of other animal-rights initiatives too".
