Here’s a roundup of this week’s biggest news stories related to animal research—all the recent media coverage you need to know right now to be the most effective activist for animals in labs.
Monkeys Given Genital Herpes, Then Bled Out, with Your Money
Rise for Animals, 9/11/2024
Monkeys infected with genital herpes, then bled out and killed?! This is the kind of unethical barbarity that the government is funding with our tax dollars. 📰 Full Story →
Cruel Kitten Experiments Canceled Following WCW Investigation; Over a Dozen Cats Rescued
Karen Lapizco, 9/5/2024
“ . . . the University of California-Davis [UC-Davis] has canceled plans for new kitten experiments, shut down its cat breeding colony, and retired 15 cats to the Kindness Ranch animal sanctuary in Hartville, Wyoming.
“The now-canceled study at UC-Davis, funded by more than $419,000 tax payer dollars from the [NIH], planned to infect at least 10 kittens from the colony with Toxoplasmosis by feeding them mouse brains and then killing them….” 📰 Full Story →
ICCS to Bring Industry, Nonprofit and Regulators Together to Advance Animal-Free Science
Personal Care Insights, 9/9/2024
“The International Collaboration on Cosmetics Safety (ICCS) gathers stakeholders in Washington, DC, US, for its first in-person meeting to accelerate the switch to animal-free science in cosmetics.”
“With an emphasis on Next Generation Risk Assessments (NGRAs) and New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), scientists and experts from international regulatory agencies, research institutes, NGOs and industry will debate how to advance animal-free safety assessments of cosmetics for human and environmental safety . . . “‘Our mission is to work collaboratively with all stakeholders to accelerate the adoption of animal-free safety assessments for cosmetics and their ingredients globally.’” 📰 Full Story →
UGA Veterinary School Addresses Issues Raised by USDA
Rebecca Schillinger, 9/10/2024
“UGA became aware of violations of inadequate housing, inadequate training of staff, improper handling of animals and more prior to the [USDA] inspection.”
‘“UGA received nearly $76 million in taxpayer money last year….’” 📰 Full Story →
There is Now Very Little Doubt that Covid Leaked from a Lab
Matt Ridley, 9/10/2024
“The experiments they did in Wuhan were crazily risky. They took the spike genes of SARS-like viruses they found in bats and inserted them into other virus backbones to make chimeras (viruses that contain genetic material from two or more sources), then infected human cells and humanised mice. In one case, the chimera virus proved to be 10,000 times more infectious in terms of viral load in the mice and significantly more lethal.”
“In short, those of us who argue that the pandemic began with a laboratory accident have comprehensively won the debate. I do have some sympathy with the virologists who have waged a four-year battle to suppress, censor and delete all discussion of a laboratory leak. If my livelihood depended on this kind of research, I too would probably find it hard to accept that a lab leak had happened. Scientists, politicians, businesspeople and even journalists have a vested interest in hoping the subject just fades from memory.” 📰 Full Story →
Monkey Holding Facility Plans in County Dropped
Susan Avera Holt, 9/11/2024
“Charles River Laboratories is selling the 538 acres in western Brazoria County [Texas] where it had proposed to quarantine thousands of non-human primates.”
“[Representatives from] Kandurt [LLC, a shell company for Charles River] … outlined their plans to build a non-human primate (monkey) quarantine facility over the summer of 2023 during informal meetings with neighbors who have adjoining property along the private road. Those neighbors … immediately began contacting anyone and everyone who could raise the alarm about thousands of monkeys being housed in the environmentally sensitive Columbia Bottomlands.”
“Charles River does not intend to build the proposed quarantine facility anywhere else in the near future.” 📰 Full Story →
Testing on Live Animals Fell by 3% Last Year, Data Suggests
Nina Massey, 9/11/2024
“Across Great Britain, 2.68 million scientific procedures were carried out on animals in 2023 – down from 2.76 million in 2022 – representing the lower number since 2001. Data . . . shows that experimental procedures (1.47 million) fell by 3% and procedures for creation and breeding also decreased by 3% on the previous year.”
“Mice, fish, birds or rats were used in the vast majority (95%) of procedures . . . procedures on specially protected species – cats, dogs, horses and non-human primates – accounted for use in 1.2% of experimental procedures in 2023.” 📰 Full Story →
In case you missed it:
NIH Imprisons Chimps, Enriches Charles River at Same Time
Rise for Animals, 9/11/2024
Because Charles River Laboratories holds a contract with the NIH, it really holds a contract with us, the taxpayers – meaning, they have made us complicit in the continued imprisonment of 26 chimpanzees imprisoned at Alamogordo Primate Facility. Learn more and take action now to get these chimps moved from Alamogordo to sanctuary! 📰 Full Story →