Animal testing Weekly Updates

VICTORY! The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act has just passed in Congress, meaning that thousands of animals will be saved. This new legislation contains important language that will reduce and replace the use of animals in painful chemical toxicity tests. By modernizing the ways in which chemicals are tested, this legislation will allow for better regulation of dangerous chemicals, thus protecting both animals and humans. It is a critical step in the right direction.
For 35 years, PETA's scientists have led the fight to convince regulators and industry researchers that poisoning animals doesn't make people safer or healthier, and we're thrilled that lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have finally seen the light. We have played a central role in the revolution in toxicity testing that is now taking place and is reflected in this legislation. Over 50,000 of you signed our action alerts aimed at reducing and replacing the use of animals in chemical toxicity tests. We truly couldn't have done this without your support.

What’s next? The bill has passed the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate! Next it’s on to the President’s desk. We will keep you updated as news comes in!

Each time you sign one of PETA's action alerts, pick up the phone and call your representative in behalf of animals, or make a donation to PETA to help us fund non-animal testing methods, you are making progress possible. Thank you for caring about the animals who suffer in chemical testing.

Just now, the Senate passed the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act. This follows an historic vote on Tuesday by the House when the bill passed by a vote of 403-12. We are only one step away from saving hundreds of thousands of lives by replacing animal tests with human-relevant alternatives!

This victory wouldn't have been possible without you.

For the past nine years, the entire Physicians Committee community has come together time and time again to stand up for human-relevant, animal-free methods for chemical testing. The support of our members has allowed us to educate members of Congress on this complex and scientific issue. Our supporters flooded Congress with more than 80,000 phone calls and e-mails demanding reforms to legislative proposals based on decades-old science. What could have been a disaster for animals will now revolutionize chemical testing.

The next stop for this bill is the White House, where we expect President Obama to stand up for an approach to toxicity testing that looks to the future. By signing this bill into law, President Obama will provide better protections for both people and animals.

Here's what you can do right now to help us bring this bill across the finish line. 

New Law Will Spare Many Thousands of Animals the Agony of Cruel Chemical Tests. At long last: Chemical testing reform legislation passes both chambers of Congress and is expected to be signed into law by the president soon!

Tens of thousands of animals will be saved with the passage in Congress of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act. This legislation will modernize chemical toxicity testing requirements and reform a broken system that relies largely on painful, ineffective tests on animals. The legislation now moves on to the president’s desk!
Cute rat
For more than three decades, PETA has been at the forefront of convincing the public, regulators, and scientists that testing industrial chemicals on animals is cruel and does not protect public health or the environment.  A revolution in how chemicals are tested has been taking place over the last two decades thanks in large part to the central role PETA’s scientists have played.  This legislation reflects the new science.

By modernizing chemical testing, the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act will help protect both animals and humans.

Millions of mice, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, and other animals are poisoned and killed every year in tests that attempt to measure the hazards of industrial chemicals. Animals are forced to swallow or inhale a test substance or have a chemical smeared into their eyes or onto their skin. Some of these tests date back to the 1920s.

Even if a test substance harms animals, it can still be marketed, and conversely, if it is shown to be safe in animals, there is no guarantee that it will be safe in humans.

The Toxic Substances Control Act was enacted 40 years ago to regulate chemicals that are used in everyday products, but since then, only a handful of dangerous substances have been banned. The new law requires that non-animal testing methods be developed, prioritized, and used before toxicity tests on animals are considered.

You helped make this progress possible by responding to our action alerts, calling your Congressional representatives, and donating to PETA to fund the development of non-animal testing methods that can now be implemented!

Note: PETA supports animal rights and opposes all forms of animal exploitation, and it informs and educates the public on those issues. It does not directly or indirectly participate or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office or any political party.

Check out the latest edition of the AV Magazine: Birds in research and testing.

Today you and nearly 20,000 others have signed, pledging to help captive chimpanzees live safely and peacefully in the U.S.
Indie rescued from research
Unable to survive in the wild, these chimpanzees need a place where they can live the remainder of their lives with dignity. Here at Save the Chimps they now have the choices and freedoms they need to thrive. They have the companionship of other chimpanzees, loving care from their caregivers, and outdoor habitats to roam and explore.

Save the Chimps, the world’s largest chimpanzee sanctuary, is a nonprofit organization. We provide our more than 250 residents with loving care, nutritious food, a variety of enrichment, and expert veterinary care each day. But it takes more than love and compassion to care for chimpanzees - it takes the financial support of people like you to provide a peaceful and dignified retirement to chimpanzees in need.

Indie is a gentle, dignified, and intelligent chimpanzee who resides at Save the Chimps. As a member of a group called Bobby's family, Indie is able to form lasting friendships, roam her island home, and enjoy the warmth of the sun every day.

But for years Indie was locked in a small cage and subjected to invasive medical experiments at the former Coulston Foundation - a New Mexico lab with the worst record of any primate lab in the history of the Animal Welfare Act.

We've made a promise to Indie, and more than 250 other chimpanzees in our care, that they will have the peaceful and dignified retirement they deserve. Your support makes this possible.

Please help us keep our promise by donating today.

Thanks to the commitment from individuals like you, Save the Chimps is able to provide lifelong care to hundreds of chimpanzees rescued from research laboratories, entertainment, and the pet trade. We couldn’t do it without you.

In a surprise vote late last Tuesday night, the Senate took up TSCA and passed it. We did it! 
After so many years of letters, calls, and petitions it feels good to claim victory.  
We did it! TSCA just passed the Senate!
The reform bill will improve the science behind chemical testing, encourage better safety decisions to protect the environment and human health, and reduce—if not eliminate, in some cases—the use of animals in chemical testing. Now that's a victory worth sharing!

Our work isn't done yet! We won't stop until the ink on this new law that will save so many animals’ lives is dry!

Thank Australia for Banning Cosmetic Testing on Animals.
Testing Janet Stephens
Target: Malcolm Turnbull, Prime Minister of Australia
Goal: Thank Australian government for banning cosmetic products tested on animals.
Australia is now joining New Zealand and the European Union in banning cosmetic testing on animals. The Liberal National Party said that by 2018, all products tested on animals will no longer be allowed in Australia.
Animals used in cosmetic testing have shampoos, mascaras and other chemicals dripped into their eyes and forced down their throats. These animals are forced into a lifetime of pain and torture for unnecessary testing.
Sign this petition and thank Australia for making the bold and compassionate choice to ban animal testing. Countless animals will now be spared from a lifetime of pain and untimely death.
Dear Prime Minister Turnbull,
Recently, Australia has made the bold decision to ban cosmetic products tested on animals. Australia has joined the European Union, Israel and New Zealand in banning cosmetic products tested on animals throughout the country.
This is a huge step forward for animals everywhere. Now countless animals will be spared from a lifetime of pain, torture and unnecessary death.
Thank you for making this bold choice to help animals everywhere. I hope more countries are inspired by your decision and follow in your footsteps.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo credit: Janet Stephens
Monkeys Burned, Overdosed, and Bled to Death at Oregon Primate Center. The Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) has a long history of abusing monkeys in cruel and painful experiments. Documents recently obtained by Jefferson Public Radio show that a monkey at the center bled to death after he removed a catheter from his vein and laboratory employees failed to monitor him effectively. Another monkey was forced to drink so much alcohol—the equivalent of 17 drinks in 30 minutes—in an addiction experiment that he became unconscious and had to be resuscitated.

These troubling incidents corroborate PETA’s findings in successive eyewitness investigations that showed monkeys living in constant fear of abusive workers and driven insane by laboratory conditions at the center.
In recent inspections conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), government inspectors noted that a monkey was injured and not promptly treated after being repeatedly injected with an experimental drug. Another monkey died during a procedure as a result of staff negligence, and two monkeys were burned after they were left on heating pads following surgeries. Additionally, close to two dozen monkeys were injured and six died after a fight broke out among hundreds of monkeys who became stressed by the noise from a nearby construction site. USDA inspectors also found that over half the monkeys at ONPRC had significant hair loss, often a sign that animals are pulling out their own hair as a result of psychological distress.

In 2014, the USDA took the rare step of giving OHSU an “Official Warning” for failing to provide monkeys with adequate veterinary care. Two years later, it issued another Official Warning when when a monkey was strangled to death after becoming entrapped in a chain hanging inside his cage.
Oregon National Primate Research Center
These warnings followed a nearly $12,000 fine imposed on the school in 2012 for multiple violations of federal law.

The continued confinement and abuse of monkeys at ONPRC is out of step with several recent landmark decisions—including the National Institutes of Health’s decisions to retire all federally owned chimpanzees held in laboratories to accredited sanctuaries and to perform a first of its kind ethical review of experimentation on primates and Harvard’s decision to close its beleaguered primate research center.

What You Can Do
Monkeys are used and abused at facilities throughout the United States. Follow us on Twitter for news on the latest Animal Welfare Act violations by institutions like OHSU and ONPRC, and help the monkeys imprisoned at Florida’s Primate Products, Inc., by calling for the facility to be shut down.