Home Page
|
Stop Animal
Exploitation NOW!
Articles and
Reports
1081-B St. Rt. 28 PMB 280 Phyllis Fong Dear Inspector General Fong, Following this cover letter you will find a piece of correspondence
which I have just sent to the Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johans.
This letter is the result of an investigation performed by SAEN. This
investigation was spurred by the recent (September of 2005) audit report
33002-3-SF, APHIS Animal Care Program Enforcement Activities. In this report you question the enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act
by the Eastern Regional Office of USDA/APHIS/AC. My investigation
examined the functioning of this office since your audit. I believe that
you will find that the Eastern Regional Office has not improved in that
time period. The most shocking incidents which I discovered include: A
monkey strangled on plastic tubing at Harvard because the researcher who
was in charge of the primate went to lunch. At the Boehringer Ingelheim
pharmaceutical company in Ridgefield (CT) a beagle asphyxiated after
becoming trapped between the bars of a cage. At this same facility a
squirrel monkey died after being run through a cage washer (a repeat
incident), other primates lost all the skin off their hands or sustained
thermal injuries. At Vanderbilt a squirrel monkey named Lil’ Wayne was
found in a state of collapse due to the shutoff of water during
renovations; he was euthanized. At Emory University two rhesus monkeys
were duct taped to restraint chairs for blood withdrawal. Dogs at the
Southern Research Institute were starved during a two week period to the
point that one dog lost more than 38% of his/her body weight. Dogs at
Covance laboratories are also deprived of food. In general my findings echo those of your office. USDA/APHIS/AC
inspection reports for over 160 research laboratories were obtained
through FOIA. 19 of the top 20 violators contained in this group were
from the Eastern Region. In a nine month period these facilities
accumulated as much as 27 AWA violations. In contrast, inspection
reports for five laboratories were withheld by the FOIA office due to
open cases. All five of these facilities are in the Western Region. I hereby request that you open another investigation of the Eastern
Regional Office of USDA/APHIS/AC due to the continued non-enforcement of
the AWA by this entity. It is clear that federal law is being violated,
animals are suffering, and the public safety is in danger. These labs
are violating the law at will with little or no fear of consequences.
I would also like to request that you respond to this letter in
writing as soon as possible. Sincerely,
Michael A. Budkie, A.H.T.,
Return to
Articles and Reports |
