利用靈長類做醫學實驗的內幕

王希亮先生 中譯

 

 

 

 

 

 

善待動物協會(簡稱PETA)的調查員,用技術員名義到一家位於維金你亞州維也納市,名叫Covance 的生物技術(Biotech)及藥品研究開發的實驗室工作了將近一年的時間ο從2004 年四月到2005年三月為止, 她在2006六月開始著手拍攝一連串的短片,紀錄了這個所謂有國家政府支持及監控的生技醫藥實驗開發公司不為人所知的陰暗面, 自此一些用動物來做實驗的不人道的殘忍過程才一一曝光, 通過這些紀錄片, 一些令人髮指的恐怖,苦難, 刑罰,傷殘,致病,以及死亡加諸於被用來實驗的動物身上, 實在令人慘不忍睹, 即便最支持生物科技研究的人也無法昧著良心無條件的再支持這樣的實驗, 遑論一般有良知的普羅大眾, 紛紛要求政府插手管制這些為了商業利益而進行的不人道行為ο人們開始懷疑, 在龐大的商業利益下,而所謂政府監督的說法也不過是一個令人嗤之以鼻的笑話,如果輿論不揭發的話!

科文斯(Covance)是一家龐大的生物技術實驗室,專門為跨國生技藥物開發公司進行各種實驗, 這些當然包括了用動物身體來做一些活人所不敢為的危險實驗ο 紀錄片顯示他們對同是靈長類的猴子的各種近乎變態的虐待; 一些員工如何打猴子,將牠們猛力往籠門摔, 心理上折磨牠們; 生病或受傷的猴子就讓牠們自生自滅;猴子受不了這種虐待,有的就瘋了似的在籠內兜圈子, 有些猛扯自己的毛髮,有些甚至撕咬自己的皮肉ο 在柯文斯實驗室, 那個負責動物實驗的主任獸醫被員工稱為“等等再說”先生,他的行事作風就是凡是一時無法解決的事情就拖著不管,他的口頭禪就是--”Let’s wait and see” ο 當一隻被實驗用的年幼猴子手臂斷了, 丟在籠子裡四天沒有人管, 每天痛得哇哇叫, 讓那些即便平常對動物也夠狠心的管理員也看不過去, 紛紛向他請示如何處理, 可這位蹣頇無能的主管獸醫竟然對一個十分普通的骨折無法處理, 手足無措的他是能等待另外一位資淺的獸醫度假回來處理此事ο當年輕的女獸醫回來後, 馬上當機立斷將這隻可憐的猴子安樂死,原因是牠的手臂潰爛得無法醫治,更是因為她的主管延誤了治療時機ο她同時發現她的上司給予那隻猴子的治療方案僅僅是類似於阿斯匹靈的止痛藥ο

基於這些血淋淋的證據, PETA向農業部提出控訴, 科文斯實驗室違反動物福利法案(AWA), 可當時聯邦農業部已經被聯邦檢察長署批評用不當的理由姑息涉嫌者ο經過一年後, 根據PETA揭露的檔案, 美國聯邦農業部終於處罰了這家龐大的動物實驗公司,他們的罪名如下:

  • 剝奪動物接受醫療及安樂死的權力ο
  • 動物在經歷一些痛苦實驗過程中,沒有得到應有的止痛措施ο
  • 靈長類動物的處置近乎肉體虐待ο
  • 猴子們沒有給予心理撫慰及適當的社交互動機會ο
  • 沒有提供狗隻們一個適當的居所ο
  • 沒有給予狗隻們活動肢體的機會ο

這不是科文斯公司第一次被譴責, 在2005年五月當他們的醜事曝光後, 他們試圖阻撓在歐洲的PETA分部播放這部影片ο他們申請禁令,但是在英國被法官拒絕, 法官甚至認為這種粗暴對待動物的行為不知如何解釋ο
雖然科文斯公司顯示了他們無法以人道精神來善待動物, 但是聯邦藥品食物管理署(FDA)也要求類似他們這樣的公司盡量利用其他方式來做臨床實驗ο美國衛生及公共服務部長, 麥可李維德也曾說:”…近年來,許多正在實驗的藥品在臨床檢驗中,十之有九都不過關, 因為我們實在無法從動物實驗中得知他們在人體上的作用…”
新一代的非動物實驗已經逐漸取代了用動物來做實驗藥物, 他們用超強的電腦合成數據, 這些數據來自人類基因工程, 生化及份子生物學等等ο新的生物技術公司如菲斯歐米 (Physiome),  發馬基因 (Pharmagene), 等公司已經運用到這些新技術來開發藥品ο而像科文斯這樣還用狗,猴及其他動物做殘酷實驗的公司,遲早會被時代所淘汰,成為人類歷史的汙點之一ο

從他們生長的叢林到醫學實驗室,牠們每一分鐘的行程都是在病痛,絕望,驚懼,孤獨,寂寞,以及恐怖中度過,這些被捕抓來做實驗的靈長類動物許多就在囚禁或運送到美國的路途中死亡. 根據CDC(美國疾病預防及控制中心)的調查,這些動物的死亡率高達百分之二十. 然而,那些即便能倖存的經歷了痛苦的行程之後,還是免不了被一連串毫無意義的實驗折騰得死去活來,只有少數能存活下來.o

光是美國每年就有超過五萬隻的非人類靈長動物被用做實驗,而這些實驗都是痛苦且極危險的. 雖然我們都知道這些靈長類動物和人類的感情特徵和群居特質十分類似;然而他們在實驗室裡還是受到不人道的虐待,就是因為牠們是”研究的工具”, 所以被當作是”物件”看待. 牠們被用來研究治療禿頭, 勃起功能障礙, 和月經…等等, 而這些實驗項目很多還是領取聯邦政府經費或津貼, 在我們納稅人無法進入的一些高度警戒的,且暗無天日的地下實驗室進行著.

慘無人道的靈長類動物走私貿易

每年從外國進口到美國用來做實驗的靈長類動物大約超過一萬隻, 其中許多是從他們自己棲息的自然環境被抓來;其餘的就是來自座落於中國大陸,毛利求斯,印尼,菲律賓等國家的人工圈養場. 從1995年到2000年, 超過半數進口美國的靈長類動物由兩家公司和他們的下游協力商包辦-- 查理河公司(Charles River Inc.) 以及上述的可文斯科研物料公司(Covance Research Product Inc).
在這個世界上, 雖然已經有許多國家如,印度, 巴西, 祕魯, 馬來西亞, 泰國等, 為了生態保護或是慈悲動物,皆已禁止出口某些物種的靈長類動物, 然而,還是有許多國家繼續進行這種殘忍的貿易,僅僅為了容易到手的金錢利益.

經過一年對國際靈長類動物貿易的深入調查, 調查員見證了進口公司的員工如何用餌設陷阱補抓整家的猿猴, 至於抓來後不符合規格的動物並不釋放,而是毆打致死或賣到屠場屠宰食用.而那些能過關的則被裝入狹窄的小籠子裡,不給食物或水,運送到集合點,在那裡等待運往美國或歐洲. 之後就裝箱打包進入航空公司的貨運艙, ,歷經超過48 小時的長途飛行數千里運送過程.

當他們到達歐美的機場, 開箱檢驗時往往發現許多實驗用靈長類動物已經在半路夭折,多半死於悶熱,脫水,以及腹瀉 --這種事情每年都發生. 能夠倖存這種死亡之旅的動物則被卡車運往各地的關押地點,動物供應公司或是實驗室,等待面對不人道的種種待遇與加諸身上的殘酷實驗.許多不是死於實驗的過程中,就是死於肺炎或其他疾病.

利用靈長類動物進行不人道的實驗

這些實驗包括了如下的過程:

  • 藥物測試: 在這些實驗中,猴子們被粗大的灌食管從鼻孔賽進喉嚨強行灌進藥物到胃裡,不管他們願意與否—儘管美國藥物食品管理局早就警告這些作法在預測藥物安全性上有百分之九十二的高失敗率.
  • 疫苗接種測試: 這些利用台灣彌猴的測試, 使得彌猴十分痛苦.
  • 愛滋病研究: 在這些項目下的實驗,他們將彌猴暴露在猿猴免疫缺陷病毒(SIV)中,不管牠們是否接觸過愛滋病毒.猴子被單獨\關在隔絕的籠子裡, 而這些猴子會逐漸發瘋,因為猴子們是群居性的動物,缺乏同類的接觸會使他們神經失常.
  • 異種移植實驗: 東非種的狒狒(猴類的一種) 被選為這種類似科學怪人式的實驗的理想品種. 那怕主事者知道用動物器官作為替代的器官移植失敗居多, 他們還是這麼做除非人們捐贈足夠的供移植的器官.
  • 軍用實驗: 靈長類動物被用來測試假如人類遭受射擊,火燒,下毒,輻射,或是刑求的反應.
  • 剝奪母愛的實驗:這是一種殘酷的心理測驗,大約四十年前,由威士康辛大學心理學家哈里哈囉所做的出名實驗,那就是將出生沒多久的猴嬰從母猴懷裡奪走,然後代之以假的人造母親 (用布娃娃或是鐵絲纏繞成的娃娃), (註解:事後證明這樣養大的猴子行為怪異乖張,母猴長大後即使交配生育,也傾向遺棄孩子或是虐待孩子).
  •  大學內所做的學術實驗: 疼痛測驗; 是盛行於美國各大學的生物研究, 即使著名的長春藤盟校也做, 這些實驗往往違反了道德原則.不久前,一個在哥倫比亞大學做博士後研究的獸醫系學者就指出許多這些疼痛實驗沒有給予足夠的止痛方法,包括那些高度侵入性的過程, 使得動物痛苦不堪. 

公眾輿論關注實驗用靈長類動物

       當靈長類動物學家逐漸地認識到這些非人類的靈長類遠親多采多姿的生活,以及保育運動人士不斷揭發實驗室對這些動物的摧殘, 這些用靈長類的實驗已經引起眾怒. 根據一個由”新科學家”期刊昨進行的國際的市場問卷調查, 大多數的英國人都不贊成用靈長類來做美容品及藥物,疫苗等實驗,尤其適當這些實驗會導致病痛及死亡. 同時在2001 年, 一個叫做”澤各比”的統計調查指出,大部分美國人都不能忍受用猩猩來做實驗.

可循的先例

       目前世界上已經有許多國家禁止用大猩猩或者人猿做此類的實驗,如大不列顛(英國), 紐西蘭, 瑞典,荷蘭,奧地利等國.日本雖然沒有禁絕,但是也不容許入侵性的實驗加諸大猿猴身上. 但是, 其他品種的靈長類不在此限. 在世界上僅存的四個利用靈長類黑猩猩做實驗以及導致大量死亡的國家中,美國卻是居首位.

打擊不人道靈長類實驗的成果

       在公眾輿論的壓力下, 這些努力已經達成初步的成果, 許多類似的實驗計畫已經被迫停止. 這些計畫所在地包括了英國的劍橋大學, 荷蘭的馬斯崔赫大學…等. 在西班牙南部的坎馬立思城, 科文斯公司的一個靈長類實驗動物養殖場被迫關門; 而在美國, 一個位于賓州廓克鎮的同樣養殖場亦遭同樣命運.

航空公司亦逐漸揚棄此類生意

       許多以往載運過實驗用靈長類的航空公司都已經洗手不幹這些血腥的勾當. 英航(British Airline)已經禁絕運載活的實驗用動物; 貞女航空公司(Virgin Airline) 從來不做這些勾當; 中華航空公司(China Airline) 曾經是第二大的輸往美國的靈長類貨運公司,但是現在已幡然覺悟, 停止這些勾當.目前為止,已經沒有任何美國的航空公司會從國外運送實驗用靈長類入境美國, 而外國的航運者也逐漸跟進. 但是惟有美國航空(AA)仍然在美國境內空運這些動物到各實驗室.

我們的政府監督在那裡?

關於農業部門, 讓我們舉個例子, 在2004 年11 月4日, 一個令人看了難過的案例顯示, 由於一項用整個身體做危險性的輻射實驗導致猴子的腹腔壞死,潰爛的皮肉甚至暴露出體外,由於這個實驗是位於華府一個軍方的放射性生物學研究所主持的, PETA的調查主任就去電農業部提及據報這些被實驗的猴子們都沒有給予適當的止痛劑或者安樂死.而農業部的督察直到五日後才姍姍遲來,來到科文斯做調查.後來有人透露出來,這個督察也不過輕描淡寫的走過場一下,並沒有認真的調查.當PETA再次去電質問時,農業部官員才回應說,那些實驗的確齷齪, 但是沒有證據說他們有錯. 但是PETA卻證實在農業部官員走訪科文斯實驗室之前, 他們去電詢問是否有給猴子吃止痛藥, 那邊的員工回答沒有.就因為如此,PETA 針對這個違反聯邦動物福利法案的事件提出了一份273頁對科文斯公司的控訴, 同時要求農業部長親自審理此案.

      至於聯邦食品藥品管理署(FDA), PETA也針對科文斯公司的實驗,提出了違反正當實驗程序的控訴, 這個正當實驗程序其中一項就是對動物關懷, 也是FDA監管的項目之一, 這項關懷動物的管理條例細節(CFR 58.90)如下:.

  • 目的: 評估動物是否得到善待及居住妥善與否, 是否將折騰及反應不利的影響減至最低?
  • 檢驗動物的居住空間, 觀察操作方式, 是否合乎專業水平. 檢閱試驗紀錄. 根據IOM 145.2條例, 在實地檢查次人類靈長動物設施之前, 要
    • 確認該設施有無遵照專業規定, 做好環境,居住,餵食, 處置, 還有善待實驗用動物.
    • 確認這些設施有無設立一個委員會專門關注動物的待遇及使用.取得送交一份該委員會的操作過程紀錄,以及開會紀錄作為求證的證據.
    • 確認新來的動物得到妥善的隔離, 明驗正身, 檢查健康狀況.
    • 查證倘若動物因此得病,這些實驗必須是經研究主管授權及有檔案可追蹤. 在報銷的動物名單裡, 必須查看日誌及確認其死亡或殤病的準確性.
    •  查看籠子, 架子, 以及其他設備是否乾淨衛生.

PETA相信如果FDA依據他們建議的方式去檢查,一定會發現科文斯完全違反各項規定. 如果要進一步了解及阻止用靈長類做實驗,請行動起來. 以下是更多相關的網站:

 

Inside Covance U.S.

Introduction

PETA's investigator was hired by Covance as a technician and worked inside the company's primate testing lab in Vienna, Virginia, from April 26, 2004, to March 11, 2005. The investigator's video documentation inside the lab started on July 30, 2004, and what she documented-the terror, sadness, sickness, injuries, suffering, and deaths of monkeys from the wild and Covance's own breeding facilities—will leave even the staunchest supporter of animal testing ashamed and all good people clamoring for justice. It will also make it perfectly clear that government oversight of labs such as Covance is a farce.

At Covance, animal technicians called the head veterinarian "Mr. Let's Wait and See." The primate staff—even those who were, themselves, often cruel to the monkeys—complained repeatedly about a young monkey with a broken arm being left untreated in his cage for four days. Apparently, "Mr. Let's Wait and See," the head vet at Covance, didn't know what to do about the bone break, and so he waited for a junior veterinarian to return from her time off. The junior vet immediately ordered the animal euthanized as the break was too severe to repair. She discovered and disclosed that the head veterinarian had given the baby monkey a drug that had little more effect than that of an aspirin for his unimaginable pain.

Covance Fined for Violations of the Animal Welfare Act

One year after PETA's undercover investigator left the laboratory of animal-testing conglomerate Covance, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has fined the company for violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) based on PETA's documentation. Among the citations issued by the USDA are the following:
•Animals were deprived of sufficient veterinary care and euthanasia.
•Animals were subjected to painful procedures but were denied pain relief.
•Primates were subjected to physically abusive handling.
•Monkeys were not provided with psychological enrichment and socialization.
•Dogs were not provided with adequate housing.
•Dogs were not exercised.
From April 2004 to March 2005, PETA's investigator worked undercover as a primate technician inside Covance's facility in Vienna, Virginia, documenting horrendous abuse of monkeys. Damning video footage revealed that workers hit monkeys, threw them against cage doors, and psychologically tormented them. Sick and injured monkeys were left in their cages without veterinary care. Deprived of any environmental enrichment to ensure their psychological well-being, monkeys circled frantically in their cages, pulled out their hair, and chewed their own flesh.
Citing the video footage as evidence, PETA filed a complaint with the USDA for egregious AWA violations. While the USDA has been criticized by the Office of the Inspector General for failing to fine AWA violators sufficiently—creating a climate in which “violators consider the monetary stipulation as a normal cost of conducting business rather than a deterrent for violating the law”—the fine levied against Covance represents a significant penalty and indicates serious wrongdoing inside Covance's labs. 
This is not the first time that Covance has been censured for misconduct. In May 2005, after PETA U.S. went public with video footage shot inside Covance's Virginia lab, Covance filed for an injunction to prevent PETA Europe from showing the video. A U.K. judge dismissed that case, characterizing the video as “highly disturbing.” The judge also commented on the “rough manner in which the animals [are] handled and the bleakness of the surroundings in which they are kept,” matters that he said, “cry out for explanation.”
Even as Covance has shown itself to be incapable of treating animals humanely, earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration advised companies such as Covance to modernize and streamline the drug development process by better utilizing early phases of clinical trials (e.g., human microdosing studies). In particular, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt noted, “Currently, nine out of ten experimental drugs fail in clinical studies because we cannot accurately predict how they will behave in people based on laboratory and animal studies.” New non-animal tests are continually being developed and adopted, heralded as faster, cheaper, and more effective than animal tests. Using complex computer programs that crunch data on human genetics, biochemistry, and molecular biology, biotech companies like Physiome and Pharmagene constitute the cutting edge of drug development. Meanwhile, companies like Covance that pump dogs, monkeys, and other animals full of drugs in painful, lethal tests are mired in the past. (翻譯到此為止2009/10/28)

Primate Experimentation

From the jungle or savannah to the laboratory, every moment of the captured primate's experience is characterized by sickness, despair, fear, loneliness, and terror. Many primates die during quarantine and transport into the United States, with the mortality rate reaching a high of 20 percent at one point, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Those who survive the miserable journeys from their homes are funneled into gruesome, painful, repetitive, and often pointless experiments from which few emerge alive.

Every year in the United States, more than 50,000 nonhuman primates are used in experiments that are often painful and frequently lethal. While it is well known that nonhuman primates are very similar to humans in their emotional traits and social organization, these animals are still subjected to abuse in laboratories, where they are used as "research tools" and treated as inanimate objects. They are used in studies of baldness, erectile dysfunction, drug addiction, and menstruation, and while many of these experiments are federally funded, taxpayers are denied access to the high-security floors and dark, underground laboratories where the studies are conducted. . (翻譯到此為止10/31/2009)

Trafficking in Misery: The Primate Trade

From the jungle or savannah to the laboratory, every moment of the captured primate's experience is characterized by sickness, despair, fear, loneliness, and terror. Many primates die during quarantine and transport into the United States, with the mortality rate reaching a high of 20 percent at one point, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Those who survive the miserable journeys from their homes are funneled into gruesome, painful, repetitive, and often pointless experiments from which few emerge alive. (此段重複了,不再翻譯)
Every year, the United States imports approximately 11,000 primates for use in experiments. Many of these primates have been caught in their natural habitats, while others are bred in shoddy, substandard operations in China, Mauritius, Indonesia, and the Philippines. From 1995 to 2000, more than half of the primates imported into the United States were shipped in by just two companies and their affiliates—Charles River Inc. and Covance Research Products Inc. While many countries—notably, India, Brazil, Peru, Malaysia, and Thailand—have banned the export of all or some species of primates because of conservation and welfare considerations, other countries continue to participate in the cruel trade for the sake of easy money.
During a one-year investigation into the international primate trade, investigators witnessed workers for import companies setting out bait for primates and then catching whole primate families in traps. The "undesirable" animals were not released-instead, they were beaten to death or sold for meat. The surviving animals were packed into tiny crates with little to no food or water and taken to holding centers where they awaited shipment to the United States or Europe. They were eventually packed into cramped crates and loaded into the cargo holds of passenger airplanes for flights that covered thousands of miles and lasted 48 hours or more.
Each year, when shipping crates bound for laboratories are opened upon arrival at airports in the United States and Europe, dead primates are discovered—animals who are victims of hypothermia, dehydration, and diarrhea. The primates who have survived the grueling trip are trucked to holding centers, animal-supply companies, and laboratories where they will be quarantined and subjected to barbaric tests. Many who do not die as a result of experimentation die of pneumonia and other diseases. (翻譯到此為止2009/11/6)

Experiments on Primates

Nonhuman primates are subjected to a wide range of cruel and unnecessary experiments, including the following:

  • Pharmaceutical tests: In these experiments, thick gavage tubes are forced up the animals' nostrils and/or down their throats so that drugs can be pumped into their stomachs-even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reports that animal tests have an appalling 92 percent failure rate in predicting the safety and/or effectiveness of pharmaceuticals.
  • Vaccine tests: These studies subject rhesus monkeys to unbearable pain and suffering.
  • AIDS studies: In these experiments, laboratories expose rhesus monkeys to the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) despite the fact that primates have never been shown to contract AIDS. The monkeys, who are highly social beings, are often housed alone in isolation cages, where they slowly go insane from the lack of stimulation.
  • Xenotransplantation experiments: Baboons are the primates of choice in these Frankenstein-style tests that even animal experimenters concede would not take place if more people just signed their organ donor cards.
  • Military experiments: Primates are shot, burned, poisoned, irradiated, and tortured in other ways in these cruel studies.
  • Maternal-deprivation experiments: These unbelievably cruel studies began four decades ago when Harry Harlow infamously pulled baby primates from their mothers' care, giving them only rag dolls or noxious wire "mothers" as substitutes.
  • University experiments: Painful tests, which defy common sense and violate standards of decency, are conducted at some of the most prestigious Ivy League universities in the United States-in fact, a postdoctoral veterinary fellow at Columbia University blew the whistle on primate experiments in which the animals, given insufficient pain relief before, during, and after highly invasive procedures, suffered from neglect and inadequate veterinary care.

(翻譯到此11/7/2009)

Public Opinion Sides With Primates

As field primatologists have learned more about the fascinating lives of nonhuman primates and as the animal-protection movement has worked to expose the atrocities that these sensitive and intelligent animals are subjected to in laboratories, the public has become increasingly outraged by primate experimentation. A 1999 Market & Opinion Research International (MORI) survey conducted for The New Scientist indicates that the majority of Britons disapprove of using primates to test cosmetics and many drugs and vaccines, particularly when the tests involve pain, illness, or death—as they almost always do—and a 2001 Zogby poll shows that the majority of Americans believe it is unacceptable to use chimpanzees in experiments. November 11, 2009

Setting a Precedent: Countries Ban Some Primate Experimentation

The use of great apes in experiments has been banned in Great Britain, New Zealand, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Austria, and Japan has halted invasive experimentation on great apes. However, experiments on other primates continue in these countries. As one of only four countries in the world that allow chimpanzees to be used in tests, the United States also has the dubious distinction of leading the world in the number of primates who are used and killed in experimentation.

The Fight to Stop Primate Experimentation

In recent years, several projects aimed at building primate-research facilities have been halted because of public pressure, including projects at Cambridge University in the U.K. and at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands. In ir, Spain, a primate-breeding farm belonging to Covance was forced to close, and in the United States, the construction of a proposed primate-breeding facility was stopped in Quakertown, Pennsylvania.

Airlines Reject Cruel Trade

Many airlines that have transported primates destined for laboratories have also washed their hands of the bloody business. British Airways imposed a blanket ban on the transport of live animals for use in experiments—joining Virgin Airlines, a company that has never engaged in such transport. China Airlines—once the second-largest transporter of primates to the United States—also stopped carrying primates destined for experimentation. Currently, no major U.S.-based airline will fly nonhuman primates to the United States from other countries, and the number of foreign international airlines that will carry them to the United States is limited. However, some carriers, including American Airlines, continue to ship primates who are destined for laboratories between cities within the United States.

Other Documented Horrors for Animals at Covance

  • Striking and choking "uncooperative" monkeys
  • Screaming curses at frightened, sick monkeys
  • Slamming monkeys into their cages after they've had dosing tubes rammed down their throats
  • Hosing down cages with monkeys still inside, soaking the animals
  • A loose monkey terrorized by a technician who slams cages into walls to scare the animal out of hiding
  • Monkeys with chronic rectal prolapses-painful protrusions of the intestines through the rectum-resulting from constant stress and diarrhea
  • Monkeys who died horribly in tests for a drug company-the veterinarian was forbidden to examine them or provide any treatment, including euthanasia
  • Small monkeys dosed with large tubes forced up their nostrils and down into their stomachs, causing choking, gagging, and daily bloody noses
  • Monkey self-mutilation resulting from Covance's failure to provide psychological enrichment and socialization
  • Injuries left untreated until they became necrotic
  • Nonstop blaring rock music

Where Is the Government?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture

A perfect illustration: On November 4, 2004, during a particularly disturbing part of the investigation when monkeys were suffering from necrotic open wounds on their stomachs as a result of full-body, lethal irradiation they received at the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) in Washington, D.C., PETA's director of research & investigations called the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to say that we had received a report from a Covance worker about monkeys suffering without pain killers or euthanasia. The USDA inspector did not show up at Covance until November 9, 2004! During discussions of the USDA's visit, our investigator was told by her coworkers that the USDA inspector told Covance officials that she takes PETA complaints "with a grain of salt," that everything looked good, and that she would see them next year. In a follow-up call to the USDA, PETA was told that the experiment was a "nasty one" but that records indicated that the USDA inspector found nothing wrong. But PETA's videotape from November 8, the day prior to the USDA's visit, shows a supervisor asking if the irradiated monkeys are receiving painkillers and an employee answering in the negative.

We have filed a 273-page complaint with the USDA about the violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act that we believe occurred during our investigation of Covance. We have written to Secretary of Agriculture Michael Johanns to ask that he personally handle the complaint.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

PETA has filed a brief complaint with the FDA, believing that there are issues at Covance relating to the testing of drugs that may violate Good Laboratory Practices (GLP). In the GLPs, animal care is listed as an area of concern for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspectors. The FDA regulations describe what is important in the area of animal care:

Animal Care (21 CFR 58.90)

  • Purpose: To assess whether animal care and housing is adequate to minimize stress and uncontrolled influences that could alter the response of test system to the test article.
  • Inspect the animal room(s) housing the study to observe operations, protocol and SOP adherence, and study records. Refer to IOM 145.2 prior to inspecting sub-human primate facilities.
    • Determine that there are adequate SOPs covering environment, housing, feeding, handling, and care of laboratory animals, and that the SOPs and the protocol instructions are being followed.
    • Determine whether the facility has an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). Obtain and submit a copy of the Committee's Standard Operating Procedures and the most recent committee minutes to verify committee operation.
    • Determine that all newly received animals are appropriately isolated, identified, and their health status is evaluated.
    • Verify that treatment given to animals that become diseased is authorized by the study director and documented.
      • For a representative sample of animals, review daily observation logs and verify their accuracy for animals reported as dead or having external gross lesions or masses.
      • Verify that cages, racks, and accessory equipment are cleaned and sanitized, and that appropriate bedding is used.

PETA believes that if the FDA uses our investigative information, it may well find violations of its GLPs.
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