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Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!
S. A. E. N.
"Exposing the truth to wipe out animal experimentation"

Newsletters
The Defender
From the Summer 2007 Issue

SAEN Exposes Federal Violations inside Covance and Merck Laboratories

Covance labs in Pennsylvania and Virginia rank among the worst research laboratories in the nation with a federal law violation every week.

SAEN�s audit of hundreds of U.S. research labs places Covance�s two facilities - caught violating federal law 42 times in nine months - in third and seventh places on the list of the worst U.S. research facilities for violations of federal law.

Inside Covance facilities, government investigators found starving dogs, inadequate use of pain relievers after surgeries, and indications that primates were losing their minds. Other violations were in the areas of inadequate veterinary care, animal care committees, and housing.

�Drug and testing companies are violating federal law on a regular basis and endangering the health of the American public as a result,� said Michael A. Budkie, A.H.T., Executive Director, SAEN. �It should surprise no one that unsafe drugs make it to market to cause harm to the unsuspecting public when laboratories can�t even follow the basic requirements of the Animal Welfare Act.�

Government reports reveal that Merck violated federal law eight times during a nine-month period in 2005, and also, continued to break federal regulations in 2006. In 2005 Merck had four violations by the Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee (IACUC), three violations of requirements for environmental enhancement for primates, and one in housing/facilities.

Merck�s troubles accelerated in 2006 as the lab racked up ten IACUC violations in only three months. One infraction involved an allegedly illegal surgery which drilled holes into the skull of an animal and penetrated the brain. Other key issues at Merck involved using hundreds of guinea pigs in experiments with unrelieved pain.

Several of the violations at Merck centered around the way in which experimentation is reported to the USDA. Multiple major surgical procedures were performed on animals without USDA approval, and experiments which clearly caused unrelieved pain and distress were reported as though no discomfort was felt by the animals.

SAEN�s work to put public pressure on Merck and Covance resulted in substantial media coverage in the New Jersey Star Ledger which exposed these criminal corporations to the American people. Check out this story and others in the Media Coverage section of the SAEN website: www.saenonline.org.

Go on to WLALW 2007 - Fighting for Animals Across the U.S.
Return to
Summer 2007 Issue
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