Thirty Years of Fighting for Animals in Laboratories

PETA’s Gift & Estate Planning Club augustusCLUB Issue No. 54 | Fall 2010 INGRID’S MESSAGE Thirty Years of Fighting for Animals in Laboratories The now-famous Silver Spring Institute for Behavioral Research in animal experiments. You can read monkeys were discovered during Maryland. The investigation led to about our unique and effective PETA’s first investigation. We many “firsts” for the budding animal strategies—which continue to break checked the government directory rights movement, including the first new ground for animals— to find the laboratory that was search-and-seizure warrant to be on page 2. We’ll also introduce you closest to my apartment, easily got served on a U.S. laboratory, the first to one of the most passionate and our investigator a job there, and confiscation from a laboratory of persistent animal defenders I’ve stumbled upon a hellhole beyond abused animals (17 scared macaque ever had the pleasure of working our worst imaginings. monkeys, including Augustus, for with—Justin Goodman, PETA’s The monkeys were in awful shape. whom our Augustus Club is named), associate director of laboratory Many had open, festering wounds. and the first cruelty-to-animals investigations. In his three years with Their normally furry tails were bare conviction of an animal experimenter. PETA, Justin has already helped us as a result of malnutrition, and they But the monkeys were still not out achieve numerous victories for had picked holes in their arms and of harm’s way because we did not animals in laboratories. legs in order to cope with the pain have custody of them. We pursued On behalf of Augustus and the and frustration that they were the Silver Spring monkeys case for millions of individual animals who experiencing. Many of them were more than a decade—all the way to languish in laboratory cages, I want being used in a crude experiment the U.S. Supreme Court. Although to thank you for helping us work in which their spinal nerves were we prevailed in one Supreme Court toward the day when all those cages severed, making it difficult or ruling and managed to get are empty. impossible for them to move most of the monkeys into their arms. protective custody to live After the monkeys were out the rest of their lives experimented on, they would injure together in safety and their own deadened limbs. Many comfort, some of them, of them had torn off their own including Augustus, ended fingers on the jagged, broken, and up being turned over to rusted wires that protruded from another laboratory, where their feces-encrusted cages. they were experimented on After gathering undercover and killed. evidence for months, we led the Today, we continue to police to the laboratory—the aggressively fight to end 1 © Pakhnyushchyy/Dreamstime.com University Animal Laboratories: The Vivisection Industry’s Crumbling Cornerstone A cat meows softly in the corner of her small, empty methods, from cutting up frogs to driving monkeys mad in cage. She once had a caring family and a home, but now psychology experiments. no one can protect her from the experimenters, who will However, higher education also gives tomorrow’s force tubes down her throat or plunge needles deep into researchers a pivotal opportunity to learn about, develop, her chest. She will be used for an archaic and cruel and adopt cutting-edge, reliable non-animal testing and medical training exercise that she will not survive. training methods. When they learn that they can replace Although the Texas Tech University Health Sciences animal experiments with more sophisticated non-animal Center had purchased cats from an animal shelter for more methods, the number of students who buck the old- than 20 years, forcing them into the hellish scenario fashioned system surges. And a large part of PETA’s described above, the support of PETA’s Augustus Club strategy involves driving that surge within universities members has helped us ensure that no more cats will ever across the country. again perish in this gruesome exercise. Indeed, as a result Focusing on universities makes sense for other reasons of PETA’s campaign, the university announced last year that too. University laboratories are the most frequent recipients it was ending these exercises. of federal grants. That means millions of monkeys, mice, Our work in this case is just one example of how PETA is and other animals are killed in taxpayer-funded fighting to shut down the lucrative vivisection industry by experiments. These experiments are always cruel, and they focusing on its cornerstone: universities. Not only do sometimes violate federal law. universities conduct most publicly funded animal For example, a PETA investigation of laboratories at the experiments, they also mold the researchers of tomorrow. University of Utah led to a U.S. Department of Agriculture Polls show that 58 percent of adults under the age of 30 (USDA) complaint. As a result of the investigation, the oppose all experiments on animals. Young people don’t agency cited the university for nine violations of animal enroll in institutions of higher learning with the intention of protection laws. cutting open or poisoning animals, but during their time at Many of the animals killed by the University of Utah were universities, their professors and mentors teach them to acquired through an archaic state “pound-seizure” law, accept cruel, old-fashioned teaching and research which required animal shelters to hand dogs and cats over 2 PETA’s Gift & Estate Planning Club augustusCLUB to laboratories that requested them. But that changed in fired off a letter to the school urging it to end the practice 2010 after we released the findings of our shocking and filed complaints with the USDA and the state wildlife undercover investigation. Utah overwhelmingly passed a agency. Shortly thereafter, the USDA cited the school for law that ended the requirement, allowing shelters to violating the Animal Welfare Act, and the school protect countless homeless dogs and cats and prevent announced that the assignment had been dropped. them from being mutilated and killed in labs. This case shows how PETA works to give a voice to Thanks to our investigations, the federal government has students who are desperate to update an antiquated even been able to order universities to return grant money teaching system. In another example, a student contacted spent on experiments that violate animal welfare laws. For PETA to report that students enrolled in a physiology example, in the first two instances in history in which course at the University of California–Irvine were told to government research funds were returned at the request of drill into the skulls of rats and damage their brains in order an animal rights organization, the National Institutes of to crudely simulate Parkinson’s disease. After PETA Health ordered the University of Washington and the presented information about an alternative teaching University of Connecticut to return money after PETA method that relied on a computer simulator, the university revealed that they had repeatedly violated federal animal announced that it would end the rat experiment, saving protection regulations, including by conducting more than 200 rats a year. unauthorized procedures on and failing to provide Not only does PETA work with students who come to us adequate veterinary care to primates. Most recently, in for help, we’re also actively taking our message to young response to a PETA request, the University of Kansas people. Last summer, peta2 launched its “Animal Testing Medical Center was ordered to return money that was Breaks Hearts” campaign, which uses viral videos, trendy spent on cruel experiments on guinea pigs. clothing, and popular technological tools to raise awareness about animal testing. The group distributed PETA’s Innovative Approach information on this campaign to young people at more The key to PETA’s campaign is our innovative, multifaceted than 350 music concerts, and more than 232,000 of them approach. Not only do we go after experimenters who are entrenched in the outmoded belief that harming animals is acceptable, we also award grants for the development of Polls show that 58 percent non-animal tests. “of adults under the age of Working With the Law PETA’s experts use the legal system to expose 30 oppose all experiments experimenters to public scrutiny and encourage public outrage in order to help stop experiments. We also on animals. repeatedly expose violations of the Animal Welfare Act by using the Freedom of Information Act to obtain documents ” that include details on terrible experiments. When PETA learned that a Wisconsin district attorney had refused to prosecute the University of Wisconsin–Madison for violating state law by killing sheep—who died as a result of decompression sickness during a U.S. Navy–funded experiment—PETA’s legal experts worked with a local grassroots group to tap into a little-known law that allows citizens to petition a judge if a district attorney fails to act. Subsequently, a judge found grounds for prosecution and appointed a special prosecutor, who was asked to investigate. Working With Students When a distraught student whistleblower reported to PETA that a professor at North Carolina’s Gardner-Webb University was asking each student enrolled in a biology course to capture, kill, and dissect 15 wild animals, PETA 3 augustusCLUB signed our petition against animal testing. Some of these International QSAR Foundation to the tune of more than young people are tomorrow’s scientists, and they will be $250,000 over the last five years. This funding helped lead spearheading the demand for change. to the international acceptance of a computer modeling system for measuring the endocrine-disrupting potential of Working With Scientists chemicals—a system that will lead to a large reduction in The professionals who work for and with PETA are experts the use of animals.

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