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 Disturbing new evidence of cruelty to animals at
Covance Laboratories may foil the company’s plans to build
a huge new animal-testing facility in Chandler, Ariz. The federal
government recently fined Covance based on documented allegations
of striking, choking, and tormenting primates at its Virginia facility.
Company officials dismissed that abuse as an anomaly.
However,
newly obtained U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection reports
reveal that in 2005 alone, five other Covance facilities, operating
as Covance Research Products, committed serious violations of the
Animal Welfare Act. PCRM experts have produced a report based on
these inspection documents, which reveal a wide array of problems.
Veterinary Care Violations
Two Covance facilities were cited in 2005 for having inadequate
veterinary care. Rabbits at a Pennsylvania facility were denied
proper veterinary care for months; USDA inspectors observed two
rabbits showing clear signs of distress. Pigs at another facility
could not move normally because their claws were so severely
overgrown.
IACUC Violations
Under the Animal Welfare Act, every research facility must have
an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), which
is charged with approving all research protocols at its facility
and withholding approval on all protocols that do not comply
with the law. The reports listed citations for all five Covance
facilities for failure of the IACUC to properly adhere to the
Animal Welfare Act. Specific violations included IACUCs approving
protocols that failed to explain the rationale for using animals
or the number used, approving protocol that failed to address
the pain and distress the animals would experience, and IACUC
members routinely being absent from meetings.
Sanitation, Enclosures, and Facilities Violations
A Covance facility in Berkeley, Calif., was cited for several violations,
including hosing down dog enclosures while the dogs were still
inside, holes in the floor of rabbit cages big enough for feet
to get caught, and improper drainage.
Registration Violation
Animals at one Covance location were discovered by inspectors in
an area within the facility that had not been
reported, as required by law. If the inspectors had not happened
upon the animals, the inspectors would not have been able to
perform their legally mandated inspection of the animals’ treatment.
Covance has told the residents of Chandler that it operates with
high regard for the welfare of animals and for the law. These claims
have been disproven by the USDA inspectors’ independent reviews.
For more information, and for the USDA inspection reports, please
visit www.ProtectChandler.org.
Take Action: Ask Your Senators to
Support the Pet Safety and Protection Act
Please
ask your senators to support Senate Resolution 451, the Pet Safety
and Protection Act, which would prohibit Class B dealers from selling
dogs and cats to laboratories for use in experiments. Some Class
B animal dealers are known to have acquired animals through theft
and deception and to have sold lost or stolen cats and dogs to
experimenters and medical schools. The abuse of dogs and cats by
Class B dealers is a serious problem and was detailed in the recent
HBO documentary Dealing Dogs.
There are
at least 93,000 cats and dogs in experimentation facilities, according
to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service.
For more information about the Pet Safety
and Protection Act and to e-mail your senators, please go to: http://support.pcrm.org/pet_safety.
Or send a letter to your senators at:
Office of
Senator (Name)
United States
Senate
Washington,
DC 20510
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