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1081-B St. Rt. 28 PMB 280 Mike Johans, Office of the Secretary 6/23/06 Secretary Johans, I am writing to you today to ask for your intervention in several
matters regarding the violation of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) by a
number of laboratories in the United States. The organization which I direct, SAEN, recently obtained
USDA/APHIS/AC inspection reports for over 160 laboratories in the U.S.
The AWA violations by many of these facilities are shocking. A monkey
strangled on plastic tubing at Harvard because the researcher who was in
charge of the primate went to lunch. At the Boehringer Ingelheim
pharmaceutical company in Ridgefield (CT) a beagle asphyxiated after
becoming trapped between the bars of a cage. At this same facility a
squirrel monkey died after being run through a cage washer (a repeat
incident), other primates lost all the skin off their hands or sustained
thermal injuries. At Vanderbilt a squirrel monkey named Lil� Wayne was found in a state
of collapse due to the shutoff of water during renovations; he was
euthanized. At Emory University two rhesus monkeys were duct taped to
restraint chairs for blood withdrawal. Dogs at the Southern Research
Institute were starved during a two week period to the point that one
dog lost more than 38% of his/her body weight. Dogs at Covance
laboratories are also deprived of food. The number of AWA violations at these laboratories is also extremely
high. Within a nine month period these facilities had these violations:
Other facilities which also bear investigation include: Boston
University, McLean Hospital, Scheppens Eye Research Institute, MIT,
Massachusetts General Hospital, Stanford, Franklin & Marshall College,
the University of New Jersey Medical & Dental School, and Yale. Both the number and the severity of these violations is shocking. It
is clear that these laboratories have no respect for the humane
treatment of animals or for public safety. It is also obvious that they
are not concerned by the potential for enforcement actions by
USDA/APHIS/AC. I hereby request that you immediately initiate investigations of
these facilities and that the most severe enforcement actions allowable
under federal law by implemented. I also request that you initiate another audit of the Eastern
Regional Office of USDA/APHIS/AC by the Office of the Inspector General
due to the inaction of the Eastern Regional Office with regard to the
offending facilities. In the report that is attached to this letter you
will see that the Western Regional Office apparently has open cases
against the University of Colorado (Denver), the University of Hawaii (Manoa),
the University of Louisiana (Lafayette), the Lovelace Respiratory
Research Institute (NM) and the SNBL facility (Everett, WA). So, I can
only assume that since the documentation for these laboratories was
provided that no actions are underway at the present time. Please contact me in writing with the results of these
investigations. Sincerely,
Michael A. Budkie, A.H.T.,
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