Kategorie: Animals

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Please see the following statement from PETA Vice President Dr. Alka Chandna regarding a fine levied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in an August 2022 Citation and Notification Penalty against the Labcorp location in Bedford, New Hampshire (formerly known as Toxikon Corporation), for three critical violations of federal animal welfare regulations—the most severe category—documented in inspection reports dated October 15, 2018, April 8, 2019, and May 26, 2021:

The company has changed its logo from Toxikon to Labcorp, but inside, it’s the same hell for dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, and other animals imprisoned in the contract organization’s laboratories. According to a just-posted federal report, the U.S. Department of Agriculture fined Labcorp $3,375 for violations of minimum animal welfare standards—including inadequate veterinary care, personnel incompetence, and careless handling of animals. In one incident, experimenters failed to notify veterinarians that a rabbit was in serious decline and had experienced a 27% loss of bodyweight. The animal was found trapped in an e-collar, which resulted in “a laceration and swelling of the muzzle … that caused narrowing of the animal’s airway and respiratory distress.” In another incident, a rabbit sustained a spinal fracture because of improper handling and had to be euthanized. In a third incident, an animal died while being anesthetized, because an experimenter failed to open a valve.

Labcorp posted $16 billion in revenue last year, so a fine of $3,375 is unlikely to deter mistreatment of animals. More likely, it will be seen as the cost of doing business. However, Labcorp should modernize its testing program by leaving archaic and cruel animal tests behind and using only sophisticated, human-relevant methods.

For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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Diners at the World Chicken Festival just might think twice about chowing down on birds’ wings and other body parts after they see—and hear—“Hell on Wheels,” PETA’s new guerilla-marketing campaign featuring a life-size chicken transport truck covered with images of real chickens crammed into crates on their way to a slaughterhouse, complete with actual recorded sounds of the birds’ cries and a subliminal message every 10 seconds suggesting that people go vegan. The truck will stake out the festival on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday as part of the group’s national tour.

“Behind every Buffalo or barbecued chicken wing is a once-living, sensitive individual who was crammed onto a truck for a terrifying, miserable journey to their death,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s ‘Hell on Wheels’ truck is an appeal to anyone who eats chicken to remember that the meat industry is cruel to birds and that the kindest meal is a vegan one.”

Birds killed for their flesh are bred to grow such unnaturally large upper bodies that their legs often become crippled under the weight, and the sheds to which they’re confined are so filthy that the red, watery goo in packages of chicken is referred to as “fecal soup.” They’re trucked through all weather extremes, sometimes over hundreds of miles and without any food or water, to slaughterhouses, where their throats are slit—often while they’re still conscious.

The “Hell on Wheels” tour has included stops outside several other food festivals and state fairs: the West Chicago Food Festival, the Taste of Buffalo in New York, Nashville’s Hot Chicken Music Festival and the Memphis Chicken & Beer Festival in Tennessee, and the Illinois State Fair in Springfield. The truck has also driven by chicken restaurants in Baltimore, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and other cities.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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Please see the following statement from PETA Vice President Dr. Alka Chandna regarding citations posted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture against Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) for its violations of federal animal welfare regulations. One of the violations is categorized as “critical,” the most severe category, while the other is a “repeat” violation—suggesting chronic problems in the school’s laboratories.

Virginia Tech should not be allowed to experiment on animals. It’s apparently unwilling or incapable of complying with even the most basic federal animal welfare regulations—including feeding the animals it exploits. According to a just-released federal inspection report obtained by PETA, a 6-day-old piglet “died from starvation and emaciation” after Virginia Tech employees permitted her to go without food for nearly a week. The piglet had been removed from her mother shortly after birth for an experiment, but the facility provided supplemental milk “only occasionally.” According to the report, on Day 4, the piglet was “sitting in the corner, quiet and with [her] head hanging down.” Even so, no steps were taken to feed her, and on Day 6, she was found dead.

The inspection report also documents that a Virginia Tech experimenter injected a drug into the abdomens of hamsters without approval from the animal experimentation oversight committee, as required.

Virginia Tech received more than $44 million in taxpayer money from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2021, and approximately half of that is estimated to have funded experiments on animals. But such largesse brings with it a legal expectation that the school will comply with minimum animal welfare laws. PETA has filed a complaint with NIH calling on it to turn off the money spigot to the university, which should modernize its research program by leaving cruel and archaic experiments on animals behind and using only sophisticated, human-relevant research methods instead.

For more information on PETA’s newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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Following the unveiling of five design proposals for the Bezos Learning Center at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington, D.C., PETA just sent a letter to NASM Director Christopher Browne urging him to require the winning firm to employ a bird-friendly design and use nonreflective glass so as not to contribute to the loss of birds’ lives.

PETA notes that collisions with buildings kill up to a billion birds every year in the U.S. and that the reflective surfaces depicted in the design proposals would lead to a disturbing and insupportable uptick in deaths—especially because Washington is situated along a major migratory route that many species follow to travel south toward warmer climates.

“Reflective glass windows lead to deadly crashes, while animal-friendly design elements such as masking films, frits, and ultraviolet patterns can save untold numbers of birds’ lives,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “Given that many of the engineering marvels at the National Air and Space Museum were inspired by birds’ flight, it’s vital that the museum award a design that lets birds safely share the sky.”

In 2020, the Los Angeles Clippers made its new arena bird-friendly via the incorporation of a fritted finish—thin, ceramic lines on glass that are visible to birds but virtually transparent to humans—and PETA gave an award to Studio Gang architects for using similar techniques in their design of the Aqua Tower residential building and hotel in Chicago.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

The group’s letter to Browne follows.

Christopher Browne

Director

National Air and Space Museum

Dear Mr. Browne:

I’m writing to you on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals U.S.—PETA entities have more than 9 million members and supporters globally, including many in Washington, D.C., where we have an office—in response to news that you are taking public feedback on five aesthetic design concepts submitted by the potential firms bidding on the Bezos Learning Center. As collisions with glazed and mirrored buildings kill up to a billion birds every year in the U.S., we ask that you include an assessment of each building’s potential impact on bird-window collisions prior to making your selection and require that the winning firm incorporate bird-friendly glass into the design.

As you may know, birds cannot see clear and reflective glass and often careen into windows at high speeds. Their hollow bones make them well suited to flight but unlikely to survive such collisions. Migratory species are especially vulnerable, in part because they are attracted to and disoriented by large, lighted buildings during nocturnal migration. Washington, D.C., located along a major migratory route, is among the most dangerous cities for birds migrating in the fall.

To counter this devastating impact on birds, architects have developed innovative designs, including films, ceramic frits, and ultraviolet patterns, which can easily be added to glass windows. For example, in 2018 the Milwaukee Bucks opened the NBA’s first bird-friendly arena, using fritting—thin ceramic lines on glass that are visible to birds but virtually transparent to humans.

Would you please consider joining this trend to prevent unnecessary deaths? We would be happy to offer more suggestions and assistance. Thank you for your consideration.

Very truly yours,

Ingrid Newkirk

President

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