SAEN seeks Animal Welfare Act charges against “fur farm” that appears to breed animals mostly for laboratories & the pet trade NEW SHARON, Iowa––If the 85-year-old Ruby Fur Farm was just a fur farm, producing mink or fox pelts for the garment industry, it would not be subject to unannounced visits from the USDA […]
Fewer dogs & cats used in U.S. labs than ever before
Guinea pig, hamster, & rabbit numbers also low, but monkey use was up. Mice & rats? Who knows? WASHINGTON, D.C.––Are U.S. laboratories using more animals than ever before, or fewer, at least of most species? Laboratory animal use data from 2016 released on June 9, 2017 shows record reported lows in use of dogs, […]
SAEN asks USDA to close lab that paid near-record fine
Repeated Animal Welfare Act violations found in follow-up inspection EVERETT, Washington––Citing repeated and continuing alleged violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act by the Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories’ facility in Everett, Washington, Stop Animal Exploitation on June 19, 2017 asked USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service western regional director Robert Gibbens to terminate […]
Trump triumph: zapping USDA web site zapped “puppy mill” law too
Maryland legislature & SAEN try to undo some of the damage BALTIMORE, CINCINNATI––Can a federal agency nullify state law just by taking down a web site? While proposing budget cuts that would hamper animal-related law enforcement under every federal agency with relevant jurisdiction, the Donald Trump administration on February 17, 2017 at least temporarily […]
Dead-end WSU studies kill bears & bighorn sheep
WSU makes apparently meaningless show of response to complaints PULLMAN, Washington––Washington State University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee chief Phyllis Erdman on July 22, 2016 made a show of responding promptly to alleged federal Animal Welfare Act violations resulting in the accidental deaths of grizzly bears, bighorn sheep, calves and rabbits in university […]
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, […]
Primate research labs near the ends of their ropes
Use of all species but macaques appears to be declining NORMAN, Oklahoma––The University of Oklahoma’s Health Sciences Center baboon research and breeding program is to end by 2019, university president David Boren announced on September 8, 2015. The University of Oklahoma thereby became the most recent of a growing number of U.S. academic institutions […]
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. […]
Abandoning Vilab II chimps in Liberia, New York Blood Center did it before in Ivory Coast, SAEN charges
Founding scientists had committed to lifelong care NEW YORK CITY, MONROVIA, CINCINNATI–– “The New York Blood Center––already embroiled in charges it has abandoned 66 former research chimps to starve to death in Liberia––apparently discarded another largely unknown group of 20 chimps in Ivory Coast in 1983, on an island adjacent to Azagny National Park,” […]