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:

ALTASCIENCES and its subsidiary VALLEY BIOSYSTEMS
📍Everett, Washington and West Sacramento, California (respectively)

• What They Say:
  • “We believe in transparency, responsiveness, and the importance of being dependable and honest.”
• What They Do:
  • Intimidate and fire whistleblowers.
    • “Everyone is afraid to say anything because when whistleblowers report animal welfare concerns, its talked about at the WIT and then staff are fired but the problem persists.”

JOINN LABORATORIES and its subsidiary BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH MODELS
📍 Richmond, California and Worcester, Massachusetts (respectively)

• 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:
  • Watch unqualified staff – including veterinarians! – harm animals EVERY DAY.
    • “Every single day, monkeys are injured by incompetent handlers forcing them into collars, chairs, and restraints that have resulted time and time again in hand/feet/tail/wrist/ankle/face lacerations, bruising, rope burns, punctures, contusions and broken teeth.”
    • “The chair acclimation training is being conducted by completely unqualified technicians who were hired as novice rodent techs or husbandry staff and then pushed into monkey handling/training with little to no guidance or training.”
    • “NHP #UG3810 was being treated for a finger injury by vet staff. During the procedure, the technicians used a heat lamp that was too close to the animals skin causing a thermal burn. The animal had to go through a second procedure after the repaired finger dehisced. The decision to undergo surgery was made by the RVT without consulting a DVM. Again; a heat lamp was used. This resulted in a necrotic lesion to the arm and chest. The animal had to be euthanized soon after. Histopath findings suggested thermal burns paired with SIB due to the burn.”

• • Buy and continually force more and more animals into their “care”.
    • “ . . . higher management imports more and more monkeys essentially increasing the pressure on an already strained and unsuccessful training team. This facility should not be allowed to keep the monkeys they currently have, let alone continue purchasing more….” 

• • Fail to provide animals with veterinary care, including by allowing non-vets to play doctor.
    • “ . . . there were several facility controlled documents . . .. that limited the veterinarians oversight over the animals. They stated that the veterinarian must obtain permission from the study director prior to administering treatments or before euthanizing animals. There were cases in which this delayed the treatment of animals.”
    • “There was a period in which the attending veterinarian was out of office, the clinical veterinarian was recently fired, and staff had no one to contact for health cases of non-human primates. The company’s CFO/General Manager . . . stepped in and was acting as a clinical veterinarian despite not being licensed . . . This went on for several days/weeks . . . Since [the CFO/General Manager] is not a veterinarian at the company, there were several cases of delayed responses to animal health reports….”

PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
📍 University Park, Pennsylvania

• What They Say:
  • We provide “high quality animal care services and facilities to improve animal research and ensure the health, well-being and humane treatment of animals used in research and teaching at the University.”

• What They Do:
  • Forge records to hide their callousness and incompetence.
    • “[Penn State’s clinical veterinarian] has on numerous occasions gone back and finessed records after adverse events/poor outcomes to make them appear to have been handled appropriately, and instructed residents under her guidance to ‘amend’ records as well.”
    • “ . . . lamb #6561 was to get a jugular catheter for blood sampling prior to surgery and the carotid was catheterized and the lamb crashed and had to be euthanized. The partner lamb, #6560 was then euthanized after insistence by the vet that they had a clotting disorder and improper catheterization of the jugular was not the issue. There was [sic] lots of tests set out and no clotting disorders were found to exist and necropsy report indicated carotid catheterization was the cause. This was not reported to the IACUC and there were several ‘additions’ and ‘modifications’ to the record and notes of events many hours after the fact and not in accordance with the guidelines of appropriate medical record keeping as the original entries were modified as indicated by timestamps.”
    • “ . . . Lamb 23200 was euthanized an hour after humane endpoints were reached and euthanasia was ordered. The record was modified several times over the next few days to explain away the delay in proceeding with euthanasia in a timely manner. [The clinical veterinarian] falsified euthanasia records and sent calves/sheep that were reported as euthanized back to vendors with whom she has personal relationships. (Meadow Lane Diary/shearer)”.

• • Breach confidentiality to cover up staff errors.
    • “This pattern of behavior that goes back years is disturbing and clearly runs deeper than [the clinical veterinarian] given that someone(s) on the IACUC are sharing specific information about investigations she is named in, allowing her to cover things up/downplay them. The fact that an electronic medical record can so easily be modified and it not be readily apparent to any viewer is also troublesome.”
    • “ . . . Calf 7360 underwent cardiac surgery and had a difficult recovery that resulted in euthanasia. This animal (and several others) were part of two anonymous compliance reports to the university that were investigated by the IACUC. During this investigation [the clinical veterinarian] was aware of specific details and wording of accusations even though she was [] the clinical vet on the case and should not have been aware of that information. During the investigation she removed specific information from documentation provided to the IACUC including the administration of naloxone without the administration of other appropriate pain medication to keep the immediately post-op animal comfortable. Animal was euthanized.”

TURNER SCIENTIFIC
📍 Jacksonville, Illinois

• What They Say:
  • “A leading innovator” in “ethical animal treatment”.

• What They Do:
  • Force animals to suffer in pain for months while ignoring veterinary advice.
    • “ . . . a minipig received a cochlear implant. She later managed to open her surgical wound twice by rooting. The animal showed clear signs of pain and distress, even after all the treatment the on-site vet was doing. The vet recommended euthanizing the animal due to not being able to keep the wound closed and the pain/distress the animal was going through. The PI [] stated, ‘This sponsor is too important, we cannot euthanize an animal because she likes to root.’ The animal survived another few months with a red, inflamed, possibly infected, half-opened surgical wound.”

• • Claim that veterinary care has no place in research – and kill animals by ignoring veterinary advice.
    • “During the development of minipig cochlear implant surgeries, both the on-site and consulting vet, as well as the CVT, were bluntly disregarded when they informed the PI and CSO of the risks associated with very small minipigs (<25lbs) and anesthesia. Two minipigs were carelessly lost due to being under anesthesia for 4+ hours. The PI and CSO continue to allow other animals to be placed under anesthesia for this long with no regard to the vets orders. The CSO has stated that veterinary medicine has nothing to do with research and vets/CVTs are not needed in the research field.”

• • Force animals into tubes too small for them and watch with indifference while they struggle in fear and pain.
    • “ . . . a surgeon [] forcefully shoved a 900+ gram guinea pig into a 2L rodent induction chamber for anesthesia even though they were told to use the larger (7L or 15L) chamber, due to the animals not being able to move around at all. This animal was particularly stressed (squealing, trying to nuzzle his way out of the box) which was noticed by myself, the assistant surgeon, and the CVT. The CVT tried to explain that the animal was pushing the lid away from himself because he had no room to move and was being shoved into a confined space and this was causing distress in the animal. The surgeon stated, ‘I have always done this and will continue to do this because I don’t want to wait on the animal going under.’ The on-site vet was notified and tried to convince the surgeon to place the guinea pig in a larger induction chamber but he refused. He still uses the 2L induction chamber no matter how big a guinea pig is….” 

• • Falsify records to hide injuries caused to animals.
    • “ . . . a guinea pig was injected with ketamine and xylazine for a routine ABR test. The animal was placed in a clean holding chamber without a secure wire cage top by the lab manager. The guinea pig started to have a seizure and managed to fling herself out of the holding chamber, onto another chamber with a wire cage top, onto the counter, and then land head first onto the floor. The lab manager was stalling me to inform the vet. I immediately found the vet so she could assess the situation. The animal was euthanized per the vets recommendation BUT she did not mention in the medical record that the animal landed head first on the floor and when I asked why, she stated, ‘I am not putting that in the record so we don’t get in trouble.” I was told not to mention the animal hitting her head on the floor in the medical record if I wanted to document the event.”

UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
📍 Salt Lake City, Utah

• What They Say:
  • “We are committed to responsible and ethical research and follow rigorous guidelines to meet the highest standards of animal care.

• What They Do:
  • Ignore the animals’ needs and let them die in their cages.
    •  “I have witnessed many counts of animal abuse; animals going without treatment, animals dying in their cages, veterinary staff putting diagnosis and treatment onto the animal techs instead of doing their job. Many staff members not caring enough to even check the animals thoroughly.”

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