ACTION ALERT:
Contact:
Kathryn A. Bayne, M.S., Ph.D., D.V.M.
AAALAC International Chief Executive Officer
[email protected]
CEO Bayne,
Please terminate the accreditation of the Envigo RMS LLC facility for their blatant disregard of the animal welfare standards when their negligence allowed hundreds of puppies to die without discovering a cause of death. Many of the puppies bodies could not be examined by a veterinarian because they had begun to decompose. Adult dogs were injured in fights due to faulty enclosures. Their behavior should NOT be tolerated and MUST be punished by terminating their accreditation.
Envigo's Accreditation Should be Yanked, Recommends Watchdog
From FarmvilleHearld.com, December 15, 2021
Envigo's Accreditation Should be Yanked, Recommends Watchdog
The Envigo dog breeding facility in Cumberland, already at the center of a
major scandal for hundreds of illegal animal deaths, is now the subject of a
call to revoke the breeder’s national accreditation by a national research
watchdog.
Dual U.S. Dept. of Agriculture inspection reports from July 20 of this year for the Virginia dog breeding facility resulted in seven direct, three critical and eight non-critical violations, all of which are extremely serious, said SAEN (Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!), a non-profit, Ohio-based non-governmental watchdog that monitors US research facilities for illegal behavior.
After the USDA inspection recorded 18 total code section violations discussing more than 1,700 dogs, including hundreds of puppies, SAEN is now urging AAALAC (Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care) to yank Envigo’s national accreditation.
Veterinary records for the dead puppies did not even disclose a cause of
death, a release from SAEN stated. The USDA inspection also noted more than
150 puppies were found “autolyzed.”
SAEN explained this means that the deceased puppies were not noticed until
they had begun to decompose.
“The Envigo Global Services Inc. (Cumberland, Virginia) could not possibly be further out of compliance with AAALAC standards,” said Michael A. Budkie, A.H.T., SAEN’s executive director, in a letter to AAALAC CEO Kathryn A. Bayne.
Budkie added, “It almost appears as though the goal of the staff of this
lab/breeder facility was to intentionally violate AAALAC standards as often
as they possibly could. If so, they have succeeded admirably.”
The inspection discusses many seriously ill animals who went untreated,
noting dog enclosures are damaged and feed is riddled with insects.
An excerpt from a report states “Records show that during the time frame January 1, 2021 to July 22, 2021, 71 dogs were injured when a body part (such as an ear or tail) was pulled through the wall of the kennel by a dog in an adjacent kennel and bitten. The exact injury varied in each case, however substantial or minor, the dogs were subsequently euthanized.”
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