Don Lichterman announces that your tax dollars are funding animal abuse, that Dove Bans Tests on Animals, some more Barbaric & Worthless Experiments, A message from a Biologics Specialist, SUNY carrying out brain experiments on live littens and more in this week's Animal Testing Update!

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In Defense of Animals
Victory! University Pulls Out of Deadly Wild Horse Spay Procedure. Colorado State University (CSU) recently agreed to partner with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on the Bureau's proposed barbaric "spay study" on captured wild mares. Under pressure and advice from scientists and animal advocates, the University pulled out of the dreadful and unnecessary "study." READ MORE
Did you know that your tax dollars are funding inhumane research on kittens? At the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Optometry, cats as young as four months old are undergoing inhumane experimentation. Their heads are mounted in frames, and their eyes are forced open with contact lenses. While still alive, their skulls are removed so that electrodes can be inserted into their brains.

 And this is only what we know so far. The college has refused to release records related to this “research” — which is why the Animal Legal Defense Fund, representing Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research & Experimentation (CAARE), has filed a lawsuit to compel their disclosure.

 You can support this lawsuit and other legal efforts to safeguard animals with a gift to the Animal Legal Defense Fund today. 

 This is exploitation. I have two wonderful, rescued cats myself — Rumor and Ocho — who I am lucky to share my life with. They are members of my family and I can’t even begin to imagine them being forced to endure the kind of pain SUNY inflicts on cats during these experiments.

 It breaks my heart to know that my tax dollars — and yours — are going to support these inhumane experiments.

 We need your help to expose the truth of what is being done to these cats behind closed doors.
Dove

Dove Bans All Tests on Animals, Added to 'Beauty Without Bunnies' List. One of the most widely recognized and conveniently available personal-care product brands in the world—Dove—has banned all tests on animals anywhere in the world and will begin using PETA's cruelty-free bunny logo on its packaging in 2019. Urge more companies to follow suit!

sepsis

Mice Stitched Together, Injected With Bacteria in Taxpayer-Funded Sepsis Experiments. Every year, tens of millions of U.S. tax dollars go toward giving mice severe infections by puncturing their intestines, pumping harmful bacteria into their stomachs, and using other horrific methods—even though these experiments have been scientifically proved worthless for understanding sepsis in humans. Stop Barbaric & Worthless Experiments!

A message from a Biologics Specialist, Regulatory Testing Department:

When I first saw an animal suffering at the hands of an experimenter—on a school field trip to a nearby laboratory—I was 13 years old.
My classmates and I watched as a worker wheeled out a monkey strapped to a chair. The clicking noise of a button was used to prompt this abused animal to jut out his arm for a drug injection—a response that he had been conditioned to make through pain and fear.
The experimenters thought we'd be impressed. But I was sickened—and that trembling, frightened primate has been seared into my memory ever since.
Today, I'm a scientist, and I'm sad to say that since that day more than two decades ago, I've seen many more animals tormented in horrific experiments. But thanks to caring people like you, my colleagues and I have been able to contribute to the tremendous progress that we're seeing toward the creation and adoption of non-animal testing methods.
As a researcher in PETA's Regulatory Testing Department, I'm dedicating my career to stopping the horrors that I've seen in laboratories. My colleagues and I collaborate with government agencies, companies, and university researchers to expand the use of human-relevant, non-animal testing methods and to promote the development of new ones. And this work even goes beyond helping animals—it also has a big impact on science and human medicine.
International government officials are working side by side with us to review new, non-animal tests and to halt duplicative experiments that can kill thousands of animals for data that already exist. In response to feedback from PETA supporters, major corporations are changing their ways in order to satisfy the growing demand for products that aren't tested on animals. Prompted by groups like the PETA International Science Consortium Ltd., scientists are making breakthrough discoveries as they develop testing methods that are more compassionate and more effective than archaic animal tests.
But as long as monkeys, dogs, mice, and other animals are still suffering in laboratories, we can't take this progress for granted. We must keep pushing for change for as long as it takes, and we need your help to do so.
From the moment I saw that monkey trembling with fear as experimenters injected him with drugs, I began to envision a future in which no animal would ever be abused or killed in a laboratory. Slowly but surely, we're making that vision a reality.
When I saw a monkey strapped to a laboratory chair and trembling in fear, I knew I had to do something.
Help monkeys and other animals trapped in laboratories by making your gift, which will be matched, right now.
Thank you for your compassion and for all that you do for animals.
Sincerely,

Jeff Brown
Biologics Specialist
Regulatory Testing Department