As you read this email, untold millions of animals are suffering and dying in laboratories across the United States. The majority of these animals including rats, mice, birds, amphibians, and all animals used in agricultural research receive no protection under current laws. Federally owned laboratories (such as those owned by the Department of Defense, the NIH, the USDA, EPA, etc.) receive no independent inspections.
We have long believed that the USDA does not adequately enforce the very limited requirements of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). Recently obtained information reveals that things are even worse than we had ever suspected -- surpassing even our worst nightmares.
A monkey recently starved to death inside the University of Washington. Another primate was literally boiled alive at a Charles River Laboratory in Nevada. A living hamster was found inside a corpse freezer at Dartmouth. 3 kittens died at Auburn after being exposed to “extreme temperatures” and “high concentrations of a bleach solution.” Negligence killed rabbits at the University of Connecticut, the University of Minnesota, and West Virginia University. And another kitten was found hung inside the laboratories of Colorado State University. As far as we know only one of these laboratories received any penalties from the USDA.
The above atrocities do not even touch on the experiments in which the animals are used. Rhesus monkeys are confined to restraint chairs, deprived of water, and have devices literally bolted into their skulls. Dogs are subjected to electric shock. Electrodes are forced into the brains of cats. Inside U.S. laboratories many species of animals are routinely subjected to addictive drugs, chemical warfare agents, radiation, biological weapons, and many other horrors almost beyond imagination.
It is time for everyone who is opposed to the abuse of animals to take a stance against animal experimentation and get involved in the campaign to end this abuse once and for all. The most immediate way to launch, or continue, your opposition to the use/abuse of all species of animals in laboratories is to get involved in World Laboratory Animal Liberation Week 2010.
The official dates for World Laboratory Animal Liberation Week 2010 are April 17 – 25. However, it is more important that you take action than that your event falls exactly within these dates (events can also be planned just before or just afterwards). If we are to be successful in exposing and ending the ongoing abuses of animals in laboratories, we must begin planning now. Your participation in this crucial event is an absolute necessity.
It is VITALLY IMPORTANT that all activists participate in this event. Millions of animals in over 1100 U.S. laboratories are depending on us. If you don’t know of laboratories in your city, contact us and we will help you find a target.
The two Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! websites ( www.saenonline.org and www.wlalw.org ) have many resources that will be helpful in your organizing. Sections of our main website have fact sheets about product testing, primate experimentation, a general fact sheet about animal experimentation, as well as materials focusing on specific labs.
Our Government Grants Promoting Cruelty to Animals section (which can be reached from the home page of www.saenonline.org ) contains detailed information including research protocols, grant applications, and journal articles relevant to over 120 different researchers spread throughout 47 laboratories in 24 states.
The articles and reports section contains informative discussions of many different aspects of the animal experimentation issue as well as data about specific facilities.
Our website dedicated to World Laboratory Animal Liberation Week: www.wlalw.org currently contains a sign-up form for this year’s event, and listings of events from previous years. It is very important that we are aware of all WLALW events so that we may help in their promotion and media exposure, so please sign up with the details of your events as soon as possible. When your event is posted on our website, more activists will be able to attend.
Many kinds of events can be planned for World Laboratory Animal Liberation Week. Using information from our website, any activist can plan a news conference to discuss the use of animals at a nearby laboratory. Protests, rallies and civil disobedience can also be used to pressure a laboratory to change policies or even eliminate specific experiments. Leafleting can be an effective method of educating the public. Large numbers of activists can be helpful for protest events, but media campaigns involving other methods can be effective with a single dedicated activist.
The priority is not necessarily that WLALW events be large or flashy, but it is vital that we be energetic, aggressive and effective. We are the voices for millions of suffering dogs, cats, primates, rats, mice, rabbits, guinea pigs, birds, sheep, pigs and animals of many other species. Please get involved with this vital event. We are their only hope.
Michael A. Budkie, A.H.T.,
Executive Director, SAEN
Souce: Michael Budkie .
Please send comments and submittals to
the Editor: Linda Beane Ljbeane1@aol.com
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