Lab animal standards are step toward Chinese national animal welfare act BEIJING, China––A brief public comment period on draft animal welfare and ethics standards for Chinese laboratories closed on March 20, 2016. The draft standards were released soon after two furors erupted over the use of lab animals in China. Medical university dog use “In […]
Ringling may be illegally sending elephant blood to researchers, charges SAEN
Michael Budkie writes: Re Ringling to move all elephants from the circus ring into cancer research by May 2016, Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus may be violating federal law by providing research material to the University of Utah from its soon-to-be retired elephants. Public records disclose that Feld Entertainment, the owner of the […]
Lab chimp retirement upstages steep rise in monkey use
100 times more monkeys enter U.S. labs than chimps are leaving CHARLESTON, South Carolina; WASHINGTON D.C.––“One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show,” rhythm-and-blues composer Stick McGhee wrote in 1950. Big Maybelle made the message famous five years later. The National Institutes of Health decision to retire the last 50 chimpanzees held in the U.S. for biomedical research, however, […]
Factory-farming monkeys is A-OK with Hendry County brass
Zoning officials zoning? LaBELLE, Florida––Monkey-farming is animal agriculture within the meaning of the zoning ordinance in Hendry County, Florida, county officials announced on August 18, 2015. Hendry County residents opposed to the location and practices of Primate Products and two other nearby laboratory monkey breeding facilities had hoped that they could be closed for alleged […]
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston failed to euthanize monkeys dying from Ebola-Marburg
Project leader Thomas W. Geisberg was 2014 TIME Person-of-theYear GALVESTON, Texas––A recent investigation of a disease in the Ebola family done at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston involved alleged “critical, major, and minor” violations of animal welfare protocols, according to an audit by the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases. […]
The Poet-Physician & The Healer-Killer: Vivisection & the Emergence of a Medical Technocracy
by Roberta Kalechovsky, Ph.D. Micah Publications (225 Humphrey St., Marblehead, MA 01945), 2009. 230 pages, paperback. $22.00. Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Visiting with the renowned author Roberta Kalechovsky and her husband Bob at the recent AR-2015 animal rights conference in Alexandria, Virginia, I recalled and mentioned to her The Poet-Physician & The Healer-Killer, my favorite among her […]
U.S. labs now using more animals than ever, data review finds
NORFOLK, Virginia––Seven years after National Institutes of Health director Francis S. Collins and his predecessor Elias Zerhouni heralded a turn away from animal testing, U.S. laboratories are using more animals than ever before, especially mice and rats, say People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals investigators Justin Goodman, Alka Chandna, and Katherine Roe. Goodman, Chandna, and […]
N.Y. judge starts habeas corpus procedure for two lab chimps
NEW YORK, N.Y.–– Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe late on April 20, 2015 ordered Stony Brook University to show cause why two chimpanzees, Hercules and Leo, should not be released under a writ of habeas corpus from confinement for biomedical research. “Under the law of New York State,” explained Nonhuman Rights Project founder Steven […]
CDC safety scandals & the legacy of former star scientist Charles Rupprecht
ATLANTA––The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention during the third week of March 2015 quietly posted a highly critical report of itself by an outside panel of biosecurity and safety experts. The CDC at the same time issued a public statement accepting 20 specific recommendations for improvement. “Leadership commitment toward safety has been inconsistent […]
Theo Colborn, 87, identified chemical effects on animal & human health
by Elizabeth Grossman Theo Colborn, 87, died on December 14, 2014. Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Theodora Emily Decker Colborn was a life-long bird-watcher who began her fascination with the natural world early. I spent several days interviewing her in December 2013 at her home in Paonia, Colorado. As we talked on a sub-zero morning, with huge […]