Here’s a roundup of the last two 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 Flown to US for Lab Tests Found ‘Injured and Terrified’ in Blood-Soaked Plane Crates
Claire Colley, Jane Dalton, The Independent, 11/24/2024
“Monkeys flown into the UK for laboratory testing were so badly injured that their crates were smeared with blood, photographs suggest.”
“The long-tailed macaques endured journeys of up to 25 hours from Mauritius and Vietnam, transported in cramped wooden crates too small for them to stand upright.”
“The photos, which were brought to light in freedom of information requests by the Dutch-Belgium group Animal Rights, sparked renewed criticism over the ethics of animal research.” 📰 Full Story →
LAB FURY Kremlin Cat Lab, Monkey Island & Drugged Beagles… Inside Cruel US-Funded Labs That Trump Wants to Axe After Covid ‘Leak’
Imogen Braddick, The U.S. Sun, 11/24/2024
“In 2022 and 2023, $3.6million of taxpayer cash was spent on a project to get monkeys hooked on cocaine and forcing them to gamble. Another $5.2 million was handed out to inject beagle puppies with cocaine. And a firm under fire over the origins of Covid has received millions from the US government for risky virus experiments – including at a lab in Wuhan, China. But Trump’s incoming administration has signalled a crackdown on the funding of experiments.”
“‘DOGE can save billions of tax dollars and millions of animals by cutting the federal animal testing.’” 📰 Full Story →
A Political Movement for Animal Rights is Coming
Wayne Hsiung, Current Affairs, 11/24/2024
“. . . animal stories played a significant role in the 2024 election. From Kristi Noem’s shooting of her dog Cricket to the false claims by JD Vance and Donald Trump that Haitians were eating Americans’ pets, violence against animals went viral this electoral cycle.”
“What was missing in all of these stories–and in the public’s response to them–was a political argument for animal rights.”
“The liberation of animals [] is an opportunity to confront the deeper maladies in the human condition . . . animal stories have gone viral repeatedly in part because animals are the perfect victims; unlike human beings, their cries are never performative. Their exploitation is brutal and limitless and real. Perhaps only by defending these beings–and not just pets whose company we enjoy, but all animals, who will always be the most powerless in our society–can our political system convince the public at large that it will defend us all.” 📰 Full Story →
National Advocacy Group Challenges Medical College of Wisconsin’s Use of Live Animals in Training
Hope Kirwan, Wisconsin Public Radio, 11/25/2024
“A national doctors advocacy organization is asking federal officials to investigate the use of live pigs for training at the Medical College of Wisconsin.”
“Dr. John Pippen, director of academic affairs for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine . . . said the group’s survey of medical schools and residency programs found that more than three-quarters of the programs in the U.S. and Canada do not use live animals and instead rely on tools like simulators and human cadavers . . . Pippin argued training using live animals is not reliable in part because of the anatomical differences from humans. As an example, he pointed out that a pig has a corkscrew-shaped gastrointestinal tract and much thicker skin than humans.” 📰 Full Story →
Yemassee Monkeys Allegedly ‘Slowly Roasted Alive;’ USDA, Investigating Reports of 18 Deaths
Michael M. De Witt, Jr., Bluffton Today, 11/27/2024
“A South Carolina primate research center that made international headlines after a mass escape of Rhesus macaques monkeys earlier this month is back in the public spotlight again over new allegations — this time involving recent animal deaths.”
“‘According to multiple whistleblower reports,’ . . . ‘a diesel heater may have malfunctioned at the facility. There were no alarms, no alerts, as 20 long-tailed macaques likely endured agonizing deaths–either slowly roasted alive or suffocated by deadly carbon dioxide fumes.” 📰 Full Story →
Evidence of Pain Processing in Crabs Calls for New Welfare Laws
Molly Coddington, Technology Networks Applied Sciences, 11/28/2024
“Decapod crustaceans such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish and shrimp” are “found in scientific research labs, where they are used as experimental models….”
“For many years, decapods were viewed as non-sentient animals and deemed incapable of suffering….”; but a new study, which proves “a pain processing mechanism that transmits signals from noxious stimuli to the CNS for processing” in crabs, “adds to the ‘now overwhelming burden of evidence’ confirming decapod crustacean sentience . . . We must, therefore, take a long and hard look at how we handle and slaughter these animals.” 📰 Full Story →
Macaques that Landed at Mirabel on Nov. 8 Still Alive, Authorities Say
Michelle Lalonde, Montreal Gazette, 12/3/2024
“Canadian authorities must stop Charles River Laboratories from using the hundreds of endangered macaque monkeys that landed at Montreal-Mirabel International Airport on Nov. 8 for biomedical research before it’s too late, animal rights activists say. A Canadian Food Inspection Agency spokesperson confirmed to The Gazette that the monkeys are still alive, and are being held in quarantine.”
“Animal rights activists and researchers have been campaigning to stop Charles River Laboratories, one of the world’s largest importers of monkeys for biomedical research, from taking advantage of what activists describe as Canada’s lax verification systems as a way to get around a de facto U.S. ban on importing macaques from Cambodia.”
“Jones-Engel wants Canadian authorities to act quickly to prosecute any breach of CITES rules and to move monkeys deemed to have been illegally imported to an animal sanctuary, with costs paid by the importers. She notes that the trade in primates for research is lucrative, with sellers fetching about $15,000 to $20,000 per animal.” 📰 Full Story →
Group Applauds Meharry Medical College for Halting Research Involving Inhumane Treatment of Mice
Nikki McGee, WKRN.com, 12/2/2024
“Meharry Medical College suspended all experiments tied to a researcher accused of keeping lab mice alive despite tumors growing twice the size of their humane endpoint.”
“‘The animals were literally biting and chewing at these tumors trying to remove them,’….”
“Additionally, lab personnel alleged euthanized animals by ‘cervical dislocation’ when the mice were ‘still alive and resisting.’” 📰 Full Story →
Thousands Sign Petition to Stop the Welsh Government Funding Animal Experiments
Martin Shipton, Nation Cymru, 12/3/2024
“Campaigners against the use of animals in medical research are appealing for more people in Wales to sign their petition aimed at persuading the Welsh Government to stop funding such experiments. Currently the petition has more than 7,700 signatures and it needs 10,000 by March 6 if it is to have a chance of being debated by Senedd Members.”
“‘By scrutinising how its financial contribution is used and directing funds to human relevant methods, the Welsh Government can set an example and encourage industry and the charitable sector to follow suit.’”. 📰 Full Story →
House Panel Concludes COVID Likely Leaked from Lab – Following Trump Vow to Make China Pay ‘Reparations’
Steven Nelson, New York Post, 12/3/2024
“COVID-19 killed more than 1.2 million Americans after likely leaking from a Chinese lab that was in part funded by US taxpayers, a House panel has concluded….”
“The finding wasn’t a surprise – after the FBI, the Energy Department’s National Laboratories and former federal officials like the Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe reached the same conclusion. But the report adds weight to the theory with additional analysis from former senior government officials and reiterates the fact that risky gain-of-function experiments funded by federal grants were being conducted at the epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan, China.” 📰 Full Story →
South Carolina Company Stops Providing Updates on Missing Monkeys
Brandy Beard, WBTV 3, 12/3/2024
“The Alpha Genesis Primate Research Facility in Yemassee, South Carolina has stopped providing updates on their attempt to recapture monkeys that escaped last month.”
“Alpha Genesis stopped sharing updates on the same day WBTV’s sister station FOX Carolina published a damning story about whistleblower documents – which detailed previously reported moldy food, escapes, and deaths at the facility.” 📰 Full Story →
Ninth Circuit Sides with PETA to Reveal University Animal Safety Committee Members’ Names
Hillel Aron, Courthouse News Service, 12/4/2024
“A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled in favor of nonprofit group [PETA] on Wednesday in a dispute with the University of Washington over the names of members of a committee that oversees animal welfare in the university’s research labs. The three-judge panel overturned a preliminary injunction issued by a federal court, which barred the university from revealing the identities of current and former members of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, a volunteer group that monitors the use of animals for medical research on campus.”
“‘Basic “biographical data,” including a person’s “name, address, identification, place of birth, telephone number, occupation, sex, description, and legal aliases,” is not highly sensitive personal information, and thus categorically does not “implicate the right to privacy,”’ the panel wrote in its five-page, unanimous ruling responding to the committee member’s lawsuit to prevent their names from subject to a public records request. ‘The fact that the [unnamed plaintiffs] are members of a “committee formed by the government to discharge an official purpose” is also not highly sensitive personal information,’ the panel added.”
“The case is now remanded to the lower court, with the preliminary injunction dissolved, meaning that the university is free to fulfill the public records request.” 📰 Full Story →
Save More Animals Like Gryffin from Labs
Christie at Rise for Animals, 12/2/2024
Gryffin was saved during a life-changing rescue mission made possible by supporters of Rise for Animals — folks like you who believe that every animal deserves a second chance.
Learn how your gift of any amount can help us throw the cage doors open and end animal experimentation once and for all: 📰 Full Story →