National Primate Liberation Week 2007 – Taking on the Abusers from Coast to Coast
National
Primate Liberation Week 2007 (NPLW) was an amazing event which focused
the attention of the American Public on the continuing abuse of primates
in U.S. labs. Crucial cities across the nation saw major media events
coordinated by Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! as well as many local
groups.
On the west coast, local activists from
Vigil for Animals targeted the heinous labs of the University of
California in San Francisco (UCSF) while other local activists targeted
UC Davis. UCSF has a long history of animal welfare act violations and
continues to perform experiments on macaques that deprive them of water
for as much as twenty-two hours. UC Davis confines over 5000 monkeys and
performs many experiments which involve confining primates to restraint
chairs. SAEN’s Executive Director, Michael Budkie, coordinated a
dramatic news conference in Seattle, WA which exposed terrible abuses
within the Washington Primate Research Center, as well as a major
cover-up.
On the east coast, the Massachusetts
Animal Rights Coalition (MARC) held a major protest at Harvard Square to
oppose the continuing abuse of non-human primates at the New England
Primate Research Center which is run by the Harvard Medical School. This
facility performs numerous terrible primate experiments including one
which studies self-injurious behavior in dozens of macaque monkeys. In
New York City, Win Animal Rights staged major protests against
Huntingdon Life Sciences and the ongoing cruelty inside their labs.
Reach Out for Animal Rights coordinated a successful protest in
Philadelphia (PA) to target the many Animal Welfare Act violations of
the University of Pennsylvania.
In the South, NPLW events were
coordinated in North Carolina by SERAT (Stop the Exploitation of
Research & Animals in the Triangle) to target Duke University, while
SAEN held riveting news conferences in Nashville (TN) focusing on
Vanderbilt and in Birmingham (AL) exposing animal torture at the
University of Alabama, Birmingham. Additional events were held in
Phoenix (AZ) by Citizens Against Covance opposing the construction of a
new Covance laboratory and in St. Louis (MO) by the Saint Louis Animal
Rights Team, who revealed brutal monkey experiments at Washington
University.
SAEN would like to thank all of the
wonderful local organizations and activists that made National Primate
Liberation Week 2007 such a smashing success and look forward to
continued cooperation as we work for a day when events like NPLW will no
longer be necessary.