Well, I totally agree with what you said.

I was in particular not saying, in my very short comment, that one should be allowed to do anything one wanted to without any control. Of course there are regulations, and of course ethics is important. It is very important that animal research is controlled, but it is also important that this research is respected by the animal protection movement too (as long as the legal requirements are satistfied).

Activists who release research animals in nature do not, in my opinion, do something good for the animals themselves. As @irime said, most of them won't survive in nature, without talking about the threat for the local ecosystem.