"Stop Animal Testing" challenge, Shelter Safeguard Program, NEAVS & How do you get away with murder?
- Don Lichterman
- Oct 8, 2019
- 5 min read
How do you get away with murder? You do it in a laboratory and call it "medical research."
Each year, countless monkeys are poisoned, cut open, and tormented in laboratories around the world.
Locked in rows of cold, barren steel cages with no opportunity to have a life and no chance ever to climb a tree, forage, or play with their family and friends, these intelligent animals live in constant fear.
They may be injected repeatedly with chemical compounds, intentionally exposed to pathogens, or used in terrifying and invasive procedures—while they're conscious—before they are ultimately deemed "useless," killed, and dissected. Sometimes, this is done in full view of their companions.
Living, feeling beings should never suffer this way. Please seize this special chance to help get animals out of laboratories: Support the "Stop Animal Testing" challenge right now.
Experimenting on monkeys isn't just hideously cruel—it's also wasteful and unreliable. Key biological differences exist between humans and other primates, and there are problems with applying findings in monkeys to humans in research areas as diverse as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, strokes, and HIV.
But even though modern, accurate, humane research methods and training tools are already at their fingertips, experimenters around the world are still tormenting animals as if it were the Dark Ages.
Stopping the horror for our fellow primates will take much more than bigger cages or more careful monitoring of experimenters. It will take the support of kind people such as you who share our determination to keep monkeys out of experimenters' clutches and to replace all experiments on animals with innovative, human-relevant, non-animal methods.
Macaques and other monkeys, many from Asia, don't queue up to be pulled from their forest homes, shoved into wooden crates for frightening journeys in air cargo holds, and shipped off to laboratories—where they're cut up, thrown around, and treated as mere test tubes. It's no wonder that an estimated 90% of monkeys in laboratories exhibit severe stress-related behavior—rocking pitifully back and forth, spinning, and trembling in terror when experimenters enter the room.
The New England Anti-Vivisection Society (NEAVS) has filed a complaint with the USDA over cruel anthrax experiments that caused rabbits to die in agony.
According to the terms of the study, conducted in 2017, rabbits enduring intense suffering were supposed to be euthanized. However, Southern Research states in recently released reports that due to lack of staffing, animals may have suffered and died without anyone even knowing about it:
“… it is possible that challenged rabbits might die during observation periods (when technicians are concentrating on other animals), between observation periods, or overnight.”
“It is inexcusable to leave innocent rabbits to die a painful death because lab staff are too busy looking the other way or are out of the office,” says Amy Meyer, NEAVS grassroots organizer. “That’s not just lazy veterinary care, that’s a total lack of the veterinary care that Southern Research is obligated to provide.”
The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) requires research facilities to provide proper veterinary care to animals in experiments, including ensuring that the facilities, equipment, and staffing levels are adequate. In this case, Southern Research clearly fell short of its legal responsibilities.
But shockingly, the cruel experiments themselves — in which experimenters expose the rabbits to anthrax and withhold anesthetics, analgesics (painkillers), and antibiotics — are legal under the AWA.
According to NEAVS, Southern Research has been cited numerous times over the last three years for violating the AWA.
The Society is asking the USDA’s Animal Care Division to investigate the experiments and enforce the maximum fine of $11,390 per violation.
“As a scientist involved in animal research for over 30 years, I was disgusted to learn that some researchers at the Southern Research Institute were willing to allow rabbits, in the throes of a purposely induced painful death, to go unaided for the convenience of the research staff,” said Professor John Gluck, Ph.D. “This situation reveals the denial of the expectation of basic ethical decency and indicts the oversight provided by the responsible IACUC.”
Animal experiments are outdated, unnecessary, and cruel, and organizations that use them should, at the very least, be required to obey basic regulations. Southern Research must be held accountable for its failure to provide adequate care to these innocent animals.
And meet Hoosier, The lab testing survivor who was found abandoned with no identity, just the harrowing tattoos in his ears.
From suffering in a laboratory, to being dumped in a shelter, then into BFP’s loving arms – survivor stories like Hoosier’s are the reason our Shelter Safeguard Program exists.
The goal of our Shelter Safeguard Program is to notify as many shelters as possible about the key indicators of lab survivors – tattooed or tagged ears. BFP sends every shelter in a given
state a poster and letter, informing them to contact BFP if one of these survivors turns up in their facility.
BFP specializes in rehoming former lab animals, and it is our goal to extend our reach as far and wide as possible.
Please download the pdf of this poster and place it in your local shelter or veterinary office so that we can step in and rescue when needed.
Hoosier is currently living with an experienced bunny foster near Indianapolis. He has his own bunny mansions, and loves having room to jump around and play.
Hoosier is very curious and adores the greens his foster mom gives him!
Dogs, cats, monkeys, horses, mice, rats, and many other animals are being cut open, burned, poisoned, and killed in cruel and archaic experiments. But today, you can do twice as much to help end their suffering. Please donate to PETA's "Stop Animal Testing" challenge today – your gift will be matched, pound for pound, up to our £250,000 goal! DONATE NOW
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