Demand Justice for Grace, Victim of Cruel Research Lab
Action Alert from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Last Chance for Animals (LCA)
March 2017

ACTION

During summer and fall of 2016, Last Chance for Animals (LCA) conducted an investigation at ITR Canada Ltd., a contract toxicology research facility in the suburbs of Montreal, Quebec that performs laboratory studies on beagle dogs, mini-pigs, and macaque monkeys. Throughout the investigation, LCA documented an ongoing pattern of animal abuse and neglect in clear violation of provincial animal protection laws and animal testing guidelines.

Abuses often happened in full view of supervisors, who made no effort to prevent further abuse or to correct systematic neglect of the animals.

LCA has submitted evidence in official complaints to Le ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation (MAPAQ), Le ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs (MFFP), Ministère de l'Énergie et des Ressources naturelles (MERN) and is demanding enforcement.

Watch the video narrated by Joaquin Phoenix: LCA Investigation Reveals Cruelty at ITR Toxicology Research Lab!

"Kept for years, their life is a toxic nightmare."

Demand justice for Grace and for all of the animals documented during LCA’s investigation. Sign to urge authorities to prosecute ITR and all individuals responsible for this horrific abuse!

Sign this online petition.

This petition will be delivered to:
Laurent Lessard
Luc Blanchette
Pierre Arcand

INFORMATION

For four months in 2016, a Last Chance for Animals (LCA) investigator worked at International Toxicology Research Canada (ITR), located in Baie d’Urfe, Quebec (a suburb of Montreal), and documented numerous violations of provincial regulations covering the humane treatment of animals.

One of these victims was Grace, a young macaque monkey who turned in endless circles in her cage. and had patches of fur missing from her skin, both signs of severe stress caused by confinement and a lack of any stimulation or socialization with other animals.

When LCA’s investigator pointed these symptoms out to an ITR employee responsible for the animal’s’ daily care, they were instructed not to record Grace’s condition, blatantly disregarding guidelines for the daily assessment of animals in laboratories, which require the measuring of behavioral well-being indicators.

Grace was treated as nothing more than another piece of lab equipment -- but she isn’t. She is a young animal who will be kept alive for years, maybe even decades, her body used in study after study as she suffers the painful effects of the toxins that she is forced to consume, and the isolation, fear, and constant stress that life in a laboratory will mean for her. No animal deserves this treatment.

Sadly, Grace was just one of many victims at ITR. LCA’s investigation also revealed: 

• Animals thrown, slammed, suspended by their ears or limbs, and struck with such force that the impact can be heard on the investigator’s recording;
• Open wounds and swollen infections left untreated or inadequately treated;
• Animals subjected to painful and distressing procedures in full view of other animals;
• Beagles and macaques denied any chance of socialization with humans or other animals, and further denied any opportunity to exercise, in some instances for the duration of a nine-month study (at the end of which the animals were killed);
• Macaques denied access to sufficient drinking water;
• Technicians instructed not to take note of hair loss in macaques, despite the hair loss resulting from repetitive behaviors developed through the stress of confinement, and despite guidelines requiring that behavioral well-being indicators be measured;
• Inadequate housing where animals were confined without appropriate bedding or a dry, flat area to rest; where animals were exposed to constant loud noises and harmful levels of gasses due to the build-up of urine and feces behind their cages; and where animals risked being caught in the cages’ wire grilling;
• Beagles unable to ever fully turn around because they were constantly tethered with a catheter inserted between their shoulder blades;
• An anecdotal instance of a macaque left unsupervised while restrained in an inhalation device and subsequently suffocating to death.

For more details, visit LCA Exposes Montreal's ITR Toxicology Research Lab Cruelty

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Thank you for everything you do for animals!

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