Animal Research

We hope this message finds you well. The Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) team continues to be as busy as ever, and we thought you'd appreciate an update as we head into the last few months of 2015.

First, with regret we announce the resignation of Natalie Prosin, who has served as Executive Director of the NhRP since 2011. She is heading to Harvard Law School to help develop and manage the new Animals, Law, and Religion Project. We are beyond grateful for the amazing work she has done for the NhRP and her thoughtful leadership. Thank you, Natalie, and warmest wishes for your new endeavor!


As we say goodbye to Natalie, please help us extend a warm welcome to our new Executive Director, Kevin Schneider. A native of Boston and a graduate of Florida State University College of Law, Kevin is an attorney who first took on substantive legal work with the NhRP as a law school volunteer. In addition to working in civil litigation in New York, he has worked with the Animal Law Committee of the Florida Bar on legislative issues and outreach, clerked with the Animal Legal Defense Fund, and lobbied for pro-animal legislation on both the state and federal level. Welcome, Kevin!


What's going on with our court cases in New York State:
Thanks in no small part to the generous financial contributions of our supporters, we've filed a notice of our intention to appeal the lower court's decision in Hercules and Leo's case, though we simultaneously remain in negotiations with Stony Brook University and the New Iberia Research Center (Hercules and Leo's "owner") to move them to Save the Chimps sanctuary in Florida. We'll keep you posted with any news!

Meanwhile, we have been carefully weighing all our options, including litigation and settlement, in our ongoing struggle to free Tommy and Kiko. Last month the New York Court of Appeals declined to hear their cases. But we are undeterred in our efforts to free them and have them sent to reputable sanctuaries where their fundamental right to bodily liberty will finally be respected.

Note: the US Fish & Wildlife Service's recent announcement that captive chimpanzees are now protected under the Endangered Species Act—while excellent news in and of itself—does not free our plaintiffs from captivity or otherwise alter their status as legal things. We'll continue to monitor the ramifications and enforcement of the new FWS rule as we proceed with legal action on our plaintiffs' behalf.

Finally, many thanks to those of you who were able to join me at the Arcus Foundation's panel discussion on the use of nonhuman animals in entertainment in Los Angeles, CA on Sep. 30th; Fordham University School of Law's Natural Law Colloquium in New York, NY on Oct. 8th; or Florida A&M University College of Law's debate on legal personhood for nonhuman animals in Orlando, FL on Oct. 19th. Public conversations about nonhuman rights are integral to the work we do, and your presence at these and future events is much appreciated.

That's all from us for now! Thank you for helping us to break through the legal wall that separates all humans from all nonhuman animals.

NY Blood Center, Keep Your Promise!

This was the message sent by animal advocates who gathered outside the office of the New York Blood Center (NYBC) on October 15 to voice concern for the chimpanzees it used in experiments and then abandoned in Liberia. The chimpanzees, who are completely dependent on humans for their care, were left to fend for themselves in March, with little naturally growing edible vegetation or access to clean drinking water. The Humane Society of the U.S. organized the protest and heads the coalition of over 35 groups working together to save these abandoned chimps.

Speaking to the crowd, AAVS President Sue Leary talked about Bullet. "He was captured as infant and his mother was shot and he was shot, and he lost his arm," she said. "But you know what? New York Blood Center didn't need his arm. They just needed his blood." Bullet, now 38 years old, was anesthetized over 400 times and had over 50 liver biopsies.

Over 60 chimpanzees are in need of food and water, living space, medical care, and assurance for their future. Although the New York Blood Center created this horrible situation, animal groups are getting involved because we care about these chimpanzees. But we need more people to speak out on behalf of these animals.

What can you do to help save the abandoned chimps? Tell everyone you know!

1. Share this email on Faceboook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

2. Watch video footage of the protest, and share it, too.

3. Like AAVS's Facebook page for the latest action and news about these chimps.
Bullet lost his arm after being shot and captured as an infant. But NYBC "didn't need his arm. They just needed his blood."
AAVS President Sue Leary speaking to the crowd of protesters, saying "We were shocked and we were appalled to think that they would just abandon animals."

Click here to watch video footage from the protest.

>>
Urge Feds to Investigate the CDC’s Laboratories Now!
monkeys burned at CDC
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—which imprisons thousands of animals—has a long history of violating federal animal welfare laws and guidelines. Not long ago, PETA released disturbing leaked photos of monkeys at CDC labs who suffered third-degree burns over their arms and backs as a result of incompetence and negligence. We obtained documents showing, among other abuses, that when CDC employees failed to monitor an owl monkey who had undergone experimental surgery, the distressed monkey pulled out the sutures and her intestines spilled out of the wound. Eventually, she stopped breathing.
monkeys burned at CDC
Now, PETA has received more government reports documenting glaring incompetence and gross mistreatment in the CDC's laboratories—leading to immense suffering and cruel deaths for animals, including incidents in which:
  • Fifteen mice died or had to be euthanized after they were placed in cages that were still hot from high-temperature sterilization equipment. The mice were reported as showing "increased salivation" and "signs of distress due to hyperthermia."
  • A calf died of hypothermia in a barn that was known to have a malfunctioning heater.
  • A pigtail macaque monkey was either inadvertently inoculated with simian-human immunodeficiency or acquired the infection from a positive animal. It was not known which.
  • On two separate occasions, prairie dogs died after becoming stuck in an unsecured floor drain.
  • Five mice died painfully of asphyxiation after the ventilation pump to their enclosure was turned off.
  • Two ferrets and 40 mice were inoculated with an H9N2 virus, which was later confirmed to be contaminated with the highly contagious H5N1 bird flu virus. The animals were all killed.
  • During a viral study using embryonated eggs, 17 eggs were inadvertently allowed to hatch. All of the chicks were killed.
The new revelations follow more than a decade of documented problems of abuse, neglect, and incompetence in the CDC's laboratories. The CDC has an annual budget that exceeds $6 billion, with more than $500 million earmarked for "monitoring health and ensuring laboratory excellence." In contrast to other laboratories that use animals covered under federal regulations, government laboratories—like those operated by the CDC—are not subject to federal inspections. The CDC's lack of accountability has resulted in egregious suffering for animals and perilous working conditions for employees.

Did you know that government-run animal laboratories, unlike laboratories at universities and pharmaceutical companies, are not subject to routine checks by federal inspectors? This alarming lack of basic oversight means that the suffering and death of animals in experiments often goes unaddressed and unpunished by authorities.

For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—which imprisons thousands of animals in its laboratories—has a long history of violating federal animal welfare laws and guidelines. Not long ago, PETA released disturbing leaked photos of monkeys at CDC labs who suffered third-degree burns over their arms and backs as the result of incompetence and negligence. And now, PETA has received more government reports documenting even more suffering and cruel deaths of animals in the CDC's laboratories. Among other things, the documents reveal the mishandling of the highly contagious H5N1 bird flu virus, the death of a calf from hypothermia after he had been kept in a barn that was known to have a malfunctioning heater, the deaths of prairie dogs who became stuck in an unsecured floor drain, and the deaths of mice from hyperthermia after they had been placed in cages that were still hot from high-temperature sterilization equipment.

The new revelations follow more than a decade of documented problems of abuse, neglect, and incompetence in the CDC's laboratories. Meanwhile, the agency's lack of accountability has contributed to egregious suffering for animals and perilous working conditions for employees.


Please join PETA in urging the federal government to investigate the CDC's laboratories.
Pigs in Military Trauma Training

Tell the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons to End Live-Animal Trauma Training

Despite the availability of humane and educationally superior human-patient simulators, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) continues to cut holes into the throats, chests, and limbs of live animals in a surgical training course offered throughout Australia and New Zealand. Most other countries that teach the course have switched to using the popular TraumaMan and other high-tech human simulators. Urge RACS to stop using animals in trauma training immediately. TAKE ACTION

Double Your Impact—Help Us Stop Cruel Animal Tests

Animal Tests
PETA scientists are helping to create a future in which modern, non-animal tests mean that no animal will be abused or killed in a laboratory. Your support during our special matching campaign can help make this future a reality. PLEASE GIVE TODAY!

Tell Kikkoman to Stop Killing Animals for Soy Sauce Health Claims

Rat Rescue
PETA recently discovered that Kikkoman Corporation, the popular soy sauce company, has been conducting and funding cruel and deadly experiments on animals in order to make health claims about its products. Please urge Kikkoman to modernize its research program and join progressive companies like Barilla, Coca-Cola, Welch's, and Ocean Spray, all of which have established policies against funding, conducting, or commissioning experiments on animals. TAKE ACTION

Warning: Animal Experimenters Don't Want You to See These Photos

Rabbit in Lab
Whether they're poisoned, burned, or blinded, nearly all rabbits in laboratories suffer immensely, dying in fear and pain for the sake of a wand of mascara, a bottle of sunscreen, or a container of floor cleaner. If you agree that experimenting on animals is wrong, stand with PETA today by making a gift to help stop animal tests. Every dollar that you give by October 31 will be DOUBLED, up to our online goal of $250,000. HELP STOP ANIMAL TESTS

10 Animal Torture Devices Straight From Your Nightmares

Restraint Chair
Can you imagine being shoved into a narrow hard-plastic restraint tube and forced to inhale noxious chemicals? What about being killed with a guillotine? These are just some of the devices used for torturous and excruciating experiments on animals in laboratories across the country right now. LEARN MORE
Our goal is to free from captivity as many nonhuman animals as we can while also achieving fundamental, systemic, long-term change so that self-aware, autonomous beings like Tommy, Kiko, Hercules, and Leo are finally legally recognized as persons, not things.

Will you join me as a special charter member of the Partnership for Personhood by making a tax-deductible donation of $10, $15, $25, or as much as you can afford each mont?

The NhRP is counting on a steady source of contributions every month from our supporters to ramp up our long-term strategic litigation campaign for imprisoned nonhuman animals. We’re planning many new groundbreaking cases, including an upcoming lawsuit on behalf of one or more captive elephants. And we want to bring more lawyers on to our staff. More lawyers, more cases in more states.

Your monthly contribution to the Partnership for Personhood will make this happen.
As I write this, my team is negotiating hard to move Hercules and Leo to Save the Chimps sanctuary in Florida following Stony Brook University’s announcement that our petitioners will no longer be experimented upon.
Tommy
Also thanks directly to your tax-deductible contributions, we're preparing to re-file new lawsuits to free Tommy and Kiko from solitary confinement. But we can only file as many new lawsuits as we can afford – and that's why I'm writing you today.

So will you join me as a special charter member of the Partnership for Personhood by making a monthly tax-deductible donation of $10, $15, $25, or as much as you can afford?

I'm counting on your urgently needed membership in the Partnership for Personhood so our team can punch a hole through the legal wall that separates all humans from all nonhuman animals.

In Defense of AnimalsA secret branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) called The U.S. Meat Animal Research Center has recently been exposed for horrifying experiments on meat-producing animals, so inhumane that even the meat industry itself is rejecting the federal agency’s grisly methods and glaring lack of oversight.

In an attempt to bolster birth rates and factory farm profit margins despite declines in American meat consumption of up to 36%, every year the research center 'modifies' some 30,000 cows, pigs and sheep – ending in starvation, ghoulish genetic mutation, and surgical mutilation. With death rates for baby and adult animals greater than THREE TIMES industry standards, mangled corpses are buried en masse in a place called the "Dead Pit"' flying in the face of a growing U.S. focus on humanely raised meat.

The taxpayer-funded agency has lain hidden on the Nebraska plains for nearly 50 years since Congress approved its existence.

The USDA says they have addressed the problems.  IDA believes the facility must be closed!
We need your immediate help.

In Defense of AnimalsPlease donate today to help IDA fight to close this despicable facility.

Please email USDA head Tom Vilsack now and tell him it's time to shut down the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center.

We're just 10 days from the end of PETA's Global "Stop Animal Tests" Challenge, with our goal of raising $250,000 online to help animals abused in laboratories. Here's how the campaign is looking so far:

CHALLENGE STATUS
Online Goal: $250,000
Deadline: October 31, 2015
Current Amount Raised: $135,927
$1-for-$1 Matching-Gift Offer: Still Active

SUPPORTER STATUS
Name: Don Lichterman
PETA Member ID: 890316786
Donor Status for Challenge: Pending

Donate $5 or more now to take advantage of this matching-gift offer before it expires!

Your generous donation will immediately do the following: