Brave employees continue coming forward to report what’s really happening inside U.S. animal research laboratories, and their attestations make clear that animal researchers’ actions do not match their words. 

Here are just a handful of newly-documented examples reported by insiders: 

BTS RESEARCH
📍San Diego, California

• What They Say: “All work is conducted . . . with special attention to animal welfare”.

• What They Do: Fail to ensure that the most basic animal care requirements are met and injure animals through indifference, ineptitude, and negligence. Whistleblowers have reported that animals suffer “unethical and inhumane treatment”, including:

• • Nonhuman primates being left “shivering in winter” (because the facility’s “HVAC system does not function”); being crammed 30-to-a-room the “size of a one car garage[]” without “air flow”; being “[stuck] . . . too many times”; suffering “[m]any injuries . . . from improper handling”; and not being sedated prior to euthanasia;

• • Dogs being “[o]ver crowd[ed]”; 

• • Animals commonly being denied “food or water”; 

• • Animal cages and rooms going unsanitized; and

• • Animals being left in lit rooms “for months” at a time.
• What They Say: “BTS Research has highly experienced teams” that “comply with all institutional requirements and achieve and maintain regulatory compliance….”
• What They Do: 

• • Perform unapproved procedures. A whistleblower reported that “[m]any procedures are done outside the approved IACUC protocols”, and another whistleblower provided an example involving “jugular bleeds in hamsters”.

• • Make animals (inexplicably) disappear and, then, reappear. Multiple whistleblower complaints relayed that a beagle went missing for three years, before “show[ing] back [up]” in the colony post-partum and without explanation. Said one: “Looks like she pupped. No explanation of where she was those 3 years. The IACUC chair brought her back. A chart mysteriously appeared….” 

• • Exploit their staff. Multiple whistleblower statements voiced concern for facility management and specifically indicted the CEO, who they say “exploits the animals and his employees” and “should be held accountable for the lack of care, inhumane conditions, disregard of professional advice and poor upkeep of [the] facility.”

• What They Say: “Staff qualifications and experience is a key element to help make sure that qualified individuals are performing the tasks.”
• What They Do: Employ staff unfit for the work. A whistleblower lamented that facility staff is “under trained” and “under experienced.”

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GLAXO SMITH KLINE
📍King of Prussia, Pennsylvania

• What They Say: “We believe we have a moral responsibility to ensure the welfare and good treatment of animals in our care . . . ensuring that, at a minimum, all animals . . . are given access to food, water and housing appropriate to their needs . . . ensuring humane care and a programme of veterinary care by appropriately trained staff . . . taking measures to minimise pain and distress to animals”.
• What They Do:
  • Kill monkeys – who were “not properly acclimated” and “struggl[ed]” – by “drown[ing]” them in “toxic chemicals that were introduced into their lungs by testing procedures from staff who were not properly trained to perform the procedures on the size, weight and age” of the animals.

• • Confine monkeys to inadequate and unsafe cages that present “entrapment hazard[s]”.

• • Force monkeys into solitary confinement. A whistleblower reported that “[t]he use of internal reviews with lack of research experience is resulting in unnecessary single housing of highly social animals.”

• What They Say: 

• • “[W]e are committed to the highest ethical standards….” 

• •  We “act with care and integrity”, including by taking personal responsibility to do the right thing, always – even when no one’s looking.”
• What They Do: “[C]over[] [up] the fact that 2 monkey deaths . . . were the result of human error….” 

• What They Say: “We recruit and develop outstanding people”, “offer everyone the opportunity to work with outstanding colleagues”, and “provid[e] everything you need to be and perform at your best – both mentally and physically.”
• What They Do: 
  • Hire staff that “fail[s] to act to stop animals from being mistreated and “hurt”;
  • Allow “incompetent” staff members to “handle, test, and train[]” monkeys.
• What They Say: “We expect managers to motivate, focus, develop and care for their teams….” 
• What They Do: 
  • Facilitate a “broken” “training program for monkeys”, “led by a manager who is equally incompetent and lacks care and compassion for animals”. A whistleblower reported that the “prolonged training program” (“prolonged” due to incompetence) “resulted in pain and distress” to monkeys and caused “rectal prolapses” and “extend[ed] cases of diarrhea.” 

• • Organization-wide suppression of staff incompetencies and animal suffering. The same whistleblower shared that “[m]ultiple levels of management” (including “management layers . . . from research and animal husbandry . . . the SVP of Research, SVP of IVIVT, the Chief Animal Welfare Officer and Institutional Official, the Attending Veterinarian, the IACUC Chair and the IACUC Vice Chair“) were “complicit” in the “cover-up of animal welfare violations”. 

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JOINN LABORATORIES
📍Richmond, California

• What They Say: 
  • “We treat our animals humanely and with respect. We follow a Code of Respect….”
  • “We minimize animal discomfort.”
  • “At JOINN, animal welfare means . . .  that the animals are provided with the best husbandry available to experience a stress-free life and good health.”
  • “We train JOINN employees who handle animals to utilize the best techniques and procedures….”
  • “If we learn that any of our employees have failed to follow the Code of Respect, we will take appropriate remedial and disciplinary actions.”
• What They Do: 
  • “[M]istreat[]” animals.
    • Treat animals without “respect”. 

• • Hit nonhuman primates on the head while they’re “strapped for their infusion process”.

• • Put “rubber toys” in nonhuman primates’ mouths (which get “stuck in their canines”) “while chaired and treating all of it as a joke”.

• • Hide “pictures from animal health cases”.

• • Allow untrained animal care staff to “handl[]e, restrain[], and tak[e] the animals out of their cages”, and force “screaming” animals out of their cages.

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LOVELACE BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE
📍Albuquerque, New Mexico

• What They Say: “Lovelace Biomedical is devoted to the humane and ethical treatment of all animals involved in research.”

• What They Do: 

• • Fail to conduct “[p]roper observations” of animals;

• • Place dogs in kennels with “next to no temperature regulation” (resulting in temperature extremes), confine dogs “next to bare insulation”, and watch dogs get “sick from eating paint”;

• • Cause animals to “get steamed to death or near death” and suffer “bodily and ocular burns”;

• • Force dogs and pigs to live in unsafe “rooms [] infested with various insects”. A whistleblower reported that “unfit housing” led “to pigs nearly constantly limping and being bruised all over” and one pig getting their hoof “rip[ped] off due to poor flooring.”

• • “[O]rder more animals despite not having any housing or staff”. Shared a whistleblower: “at this point I’m not sure how many dogs are in there but they can only handle a third of the amount of what they have.”
• What They Say: “Lovelace Biomedical prides itself on a high-energy culture of accountability, teamwork and creativity.”
• What They Do:
  • Direct staff not to discuss staff errors that resulted in a dog’s death and to “cover issues and not report anything” during USDA inspections;

• • Have untrained staff “train new people”;

• • Suppress staff dissent and “slander employees trying to improve the conditions.” A whistleblower described the “entire work environment” as “depressing”.

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SOUND TECHNOLOGIES
📍Arlington, Texas

• What They Say: “We are proud to be a piece of Mars’ mission in making a better world for pets. We take this mission very seriously and carry it through ever [sec] aspect of our business.”

• What They Do: 

• • Fail “to prioritize the animals[‘] health….” A whistleblower expressed particular concern for a “Husky Mix” named Daphne who had a “known painful limp” for months without getting “proper care in regards to limping or pain”; during this time, Daphne was continually “getting used for labs”.

• • Maintain dogs with “below average” body conditions.

• • Deny dogs “proper post sedation monitoring”, including by relying on “[in]sufficient” and “[im]properly trained staff; allowing veterinarians “to be on their phones watching [N]etflix & [] not paying attention to patients”; and transporting dogs “just barely after waking up from sedation” (and while “still with visible symptoms from the injectable drugs, uncoordinated walking, collapsing mid walk, groggy and drowsy”).

• • Transport dogs in an “unhygienic”, unsanitized vehicle “filled with animal fur”, marred with “urine”, lacking “[p]roper temperature control and adequate airflow”, and housing kennels that “are not properly secured”.

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UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
📍Minneapolis, Minnesota

• What They Say: University of Minnesota “strives to . . . promote the humane treatment of animals . . . by providing exemplary service and education in animal care, procedurement, health and well-being.”

• What They Do: 

• • Physically abuse animals, including by “kicking a heifer in the face when she was frightened of the parlor and slamming the cows’ and heifers’ heads with heavy gates when they are frightened.”

• • Injure animals, including by inappropriately “disbudding” animals – through the “improper administration and dosage of lidocaine” and holding “the iron . . . on for far too long”. A whistleblower shared that some of the victims are “too young and others far too old” and that one calf got such a severe infection that their debudding site was infested with maggots.

• • Freeze brand animals “with minimal pain management and despite freeze branding being entirely unnecessary….”

• • Deny animals “the proper vaccinations”, leading “to an outbreak of rotavirus in the calves”.

• • Quash and hide staff concerns. A whistleblower reported that the “University has ignored our concerns and swept it under the rug for far too long” and shared that the “cows and calves need to go somewhere where animal welfare is a priority because at this facility, it is not.”
• What They Do: 
  • Withhold necessary veterinary care for prolonged periods. A whistleblower described how a nonhuman primate with “exposed brain” (due to his head “chamber” falling off) was made to wait for at least four days to receive the necessary surgical care.

• • Allow a researcher to continue experimenting on animals despite having:

• • used an electric drill to “unexpected[ly]” penetrate the “brain matter” of a nonhuman primate with 20 screws – resulting in the primate suffering from neurological complications; 

• • caused nonhuman primates to experience unintended infections and sepsis;

• • “l[ied] to lab staff, vet staff, and IACUC”; and

• • encouraged staff “to never write concerns down in the animal records”.

• • Allow another researcher to continue experimenting on animals despite having “a head post fall off, another head post nearly fall off (hold on by one screw), a chamber fall of (leaving open access to the brain – covered only by the dura), multiple infections, multiple instances of severe skin retraction leaving exposed skull, surgeries of excessive duration, animals falling out of the stereotax during surgery, refusing to write srugical reports etc.”

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VERANEX
📍Atlanta, Georgia

• What They Say: 
  • “We communicate with consistency, transparency, and authenticity….”
  • “Integrity is the keystone of our operation….”
• What They Do: 
  • “ . . . alter records, not give animals water or food, kill the wrong animal then cover it up.”
  • Allow untrained staff to “writ[e] in records” and “medicat[e] the animals”.
  • Fail to punish staff who “abuse” animals.
  • Force their staff to sign “an NDA” and “get rid of footage after 10 days . . . so they can’t pull up the cameras….”

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This (and much, much more) evidence of the industry’s blatant lies and depravity exists in public records shared by Rise for Animals. Find it all in our ARLO database (which is accessible by anyone and completely free to use).*

Though devastating, there is tremendous power in witnessing and sharing the truth – and both are vital to our movement for animal rights. 

This means that we can help animals in labs just by educating ourselves and spreading the word. We are dedicated to making this happen – join us!

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*A brief, video overview of how to use ARLO can be found here (just forward to 21:57).