Animal testing Weekly Update

The FDA is requiring these cruel animal experiments. Stop Animal Torture for Human Pleasure!
In a weird and unnecessarily cruel move, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently classified personal lubricant products -- or lube, for short -- as “medical devices,” on a par with powered wheelchairs and some pregnancy tests. Because of this, lube manufacturers are now required to test on animals. This means injecting the product into the private areas of rabbits and guinea pigs, killing them, then examining their corpses for signs of irritation. Needless to say, this decision is inhumane and must be stopped.

Of course, human safety is of utmost importance, but here’s the catch -- according to PETA, 92% of drugs that pass tests on animals fail in humans because they either end up being dangerous or simply don’t work. Their anatomies are not like ours. Rabbits, in particular, are so often chosen for this torturous testing, but it turns out that their reproductive organs contain fewer specialized cells than human reproductive organs, and results of this particular personal lubricant testing on them will in no way guarantee similar results in people.

We need to end this needless torture. Please sign our petition urging the FDA to reverse its decision requiring that lubricant products be tested on animals.

An alternative exists, and one lube company even petitioned the FDA to let it use this method instead (the FDA denied its request): testing these products on cultured human cells in a petri dish would be as predictive, if not more predictive, of human safety than animal tests, and much less expensive. So what reason does the FDA have to insist on the maiming and killing of thousands of animals? It simply isn’t right.

Please join us in demanding that the U.S. FDA reverse its decision requiring cruel animal testing on lube products.

This petition will be delivered to: US Food and Drug Administration
Tell the University of Houston–Clear Lake to STOP Abusing Animals in Classroom Labs!
rats in lab
Tipped off by a distraught student, PETA has learned that rats are subjected to cruel psychology classroom experiments at the University of Houston–Clear Lake's (UHCL) main campus, even though modern and humane teaching methods are used instead in the same course at another UHCL campus.

According to course documents, the rats are deprived of food for extended periods of time and then forced into tiny plastic boxes, where they're "trained" to press a lever that delivers food to them. The student who alerted PETA to the laboratory course informed us that the rat the student was instructed to train was in such distress that she sat motionless in the corner of her chamber for 15 minutes. The student reported that rats cried out when they were handled by students—an activity known to cause rats stress and anxiety. Rats who are not adopted out after the experiments are either put back into the university's "breeding colony" or are killed.

Meanwhile, UHCL's Pearland campus offers the exact same course, but rather than experimenting on terrified and hungry rats, students use interactive computer simulations and train adoptable dogs at a local animal shelter to learn about animal behavior. These humane methods have repeatedly been shown to teach students as well as or better than lessons involving animals in laboratories.

Records obtained by PETA also reveal numerous recent violations in other laboratories at the University of Houston, including incidents in which a monkey died of dehydration after a drinking valve had become disconnected and no one noticed, a living mouse was found in a refrigerator intended for dead animals, and a mouse with severe and likely painful swelling of the stomach and inability to access food and water easily was left to suffer for days before finally being euthanized.

Please urge university officials to modernize the school's laboratories, beginning by replacing its cruel classroom experiments on rats with humane teaching methods.


Sample e-mail text is provided below to help you draft your message. Putting your subject line and letter into your own words will help draw attention to your e-mail.

Close Animal Testing Laboratory Accused of Ongoing Cruelty.

silver-Spring-monkey via PETA
Target: Kevin Shea, Administrator, U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Inspection Service
Goal: Close animal testing facility that has faced dozens of animal neglect complaints in the past few years.
Animal rights groups have filed several complaints against an animal testing laboratory at the Oregon Health & Science University. Rights group Stop Animal Exploitation Now has demanded United States Department of Agriculture investigations into cases of monkeys sustaining deadly injuries after either escaping from their enclosures or being caught on objects placed inside their cages. According to the group, these deaths were due to neglect and could have easily been avoided.
The Oregon National Primate Research Center in the Oregon Health & Science University has faced several complaints in the past about the welfare of the animals in its laboratories. In a span of only two years, the institution has received warnings about heating pads burning monkeys, monkeys dying due to respiratory distress, and 27 animals that were killed or severely injured in fights. In 2012, the university was fined $12,000 for Animal Welfare Act violations that caused the deaths of several monkeys.
Despite the fact that the Oregon Health & Science University has been named in dozens of animal neglect and cruelty cases in past years, it continues to operate. According to Nancy Haigwood, director of the Oregon National Primate Research Center, these types of accidents are unavoidable due to the nature of the wild primates.
If it is impossible to prevent these cruel and unnecessary deaths, the facility should be closed altogether. Until the Oregon National Primate Research Center receives appropriate fines and punishment for its cruelty, the neglect and deaths will continue. Sign the petition below to demand that the facility is closed permanently for its repeated and ongoing animal cruelty.
Dear Administrator Kevin Shea,
The Oregon National Primate Research Center at the Oregon Health & Science University is facing several allegations of animal neglect. An animal rights group is alleging that monkeys have died after choking on toys in their cages and being injured after escaping their enclosures. In past years, a flurry of similar complaints have been launched against the institution for its treatment of animals.
Until the Oregon Health & Science University is properly reprimanded for its repeated neglect and cruelty, animals will continue to suffer and die. We, the undersigned, demand that the facility is closed permanently and that the monkeys are placed with rescue operations.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo credit: PETA
Release All Research Monkeys From Allegedly Negligent Facility

Target: U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack
Goal: Release all primates from testing laboratory where two monkeys have already died due to alleged staff negligence.
Caged-monkey-by-vinoth-chandar
Two monkeys have reportedly died on two separate occasions due to staff negligence at Oregon Health and Science University’s primate center. The first monkey became entangled in a foraging device which lead to the poor animal’s strangulation while the second fell and injured his spine so severely it had to be put down.
Not only do these poor animals have to undergo distressing and painful tests in these research facilities, they are also exposed to other dangers because of staff’s alleged inability to care for them properly. This particular research center houses and performs experiments on over 5,000 primates.
Sign this petition demanding that this facility be made to retire its research monkeys to protect them from painful research experiments and further accidents.
Dear Mr. Vilsack,
Two monkeys have reportedly died due to staff negligence at Oregon Health and Science University’s primate center in Beaverton. The first monkey became entangled in a foraging device and strangled himself and the second animal escaped from a holding area, falling and injuring his spine so severely he had to be put down.
Not only are these poor animals subjected to painful and distressing tests, they are also exposed to fatal accidents due to staff’s alleged carelessness. We demand that the 5,000 primates held at the facility are released to suitable sanctuaries so that they can be safe from experimentation and lethal incidents.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo credit: Vinoth Chandar
Tell Congress to End Military Trauma Training on Animals!
goat used in trauma training
goat used in trauma training
The U.S. Congress has introduced new lifesaving legislation that, if enacted, will phase out the use of animals in cruel and archaic trauma training exercises, during which thousands of live pigs, goats, and other animals each year endure gunshots to their faces, multiple stabbings to their hearts and lungs, and amputation of their limbs. The new legislation favors the use of superior and humane life-like human-patient simulators that accurately mimic severe bleeding, breathing difficulties, responses to medications, and even death.
This critical legislation is based on sound science. Military and civilian studies have repeatedly concluded that modern simulators teach lifesaving battlefield medical skills as well as or better than shooting, cutting up, and otherwise harming animals. Unlike mutilating and killing animals, training on simulators allows medics and soldiers to practice on accurate anatomical models and repeat vital procedures until all trainees are confident and proficient.

A U.S. Air Force surgeon who has conducted studies comparing simulation models to animal use recently wrote in Military Medicine, the military's own medical journal: "We have entered into an age where artificial simulator models are at least equivalent to, if not superior to, animal models. … [T]he military should make the move away from all animal simulation when effective equivalent artificial simulators exist for a specific task. For emergency procedures, this day has arrived."

In recent years, PETA has successfully compelled the U.S. Army and the U.S. Coast Guard to substantially reduce the number of live animals used in trauma training drills. The entire U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) also recently banned animal use in favor of simulation in many medical training areas, including pediatric intubation and certain types of trauma training—both of which PETA had pressed for—stating that "suitable simulation alternatives can replace the use of live animals." Further, nearly 80 percent of our NATO allies have confirmed that they do not use any animals for military training.

While progress has been made, there is absolutely no excuse for the DOD to continue cutting, shooting, and dismembering animals for any type of training, especially given the superior training methods available—and that DOD regulations require that non-animal training methods be used whenever possible.

Please send a polite e-mail to your congressional representatives and urge them to SUPPORT the Battlefield Excellence through Superior Training (BEST) Practices Act (S. 587/H.R. 1095), which will spare animals' lives and ensure that servicemembers learn lifesaving medical skills using the most effective modern technology.