Part I of a five-part series. See also Part II: Farmed animals & the Brexit “diet plan” and Part III: Farmed animals & money talks. Part IV: What Brexit means for “pet passports” & lab animals. Part V: Back to the Jungle Book: U.K. wildlife law post-Brexit. LONDON, U.K.––Will the June 23, […]
SAEN got their goats: Santa Cruz Biotech put out of animal lab work
USDA-APHIS case settlement comes after Santa Cruz Biotech was caught allegedly hiding goats from inspection SANTA CRUZ, California––Santa Cruz Biotechnology Inc., a major producer of antibodies, was on May 19, 2016 fined $3.5 million and appears to have agreed to abandon working with live animals. Santa Cruz Biotech was in 2012 notoriously caught allegedly trying […]
India drops animal welfare rep from lab oversight board
Animal Welfare Board of India chief ousted for opposing bullfighting CHENNAI, India––Crippling the ability of the Animal Welfare Board of India to monitor animal use in biomedical research and product safety testing, Indian minister of environment and forests Prakash Javadekar has removed AWBI chair R.M. Kharb from his position on the 13-member Committee for […]
Can Tox21 robot take the gamble on animals out of toxicity testing?
Testing device uses cells instead of animals WASHINGTON D.C.––Can a robot detect substance toxicity toward humans faster and more accurately than a traditional test on rats, mice, fish, or other animals? The developers of the Tox21 robot, whose name is short for “Toxicology in the 21st Century,” are betting that the robot can outperform traditional […]
Two furors bring China draft standards for lab animals
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 […]