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

Newsletters
The Defender
From Fall 2008 Issue

From the Desk of Michael Budkie, SAEN’s Executive Director

Animal experimentation is a huge issue. It’s so big that we really have no accurate idea of how many animals are victimized every year in the 1100 labs that perform animal experiments in the U.S. Tens of thousands of animal die every day – one at a time.

It is impossible to make sense of this issue. Protocols, inspection reports, animal use reports, grant applications, journal articles, etc. – this issue is comprised of a sea of paper. When you spend your days and nights wading through these documents, you become an expert, whether you really want to or not, an expert in pain and suffering.

In the roughly 20 years that I’ve been an animal advocate, I have worked almost exclusively on the animal experimentation issue. I’ve read tens of thousands of pages of inspection reports, research protocols, and health care records for dogs, cats, goats, sheep, rabbits, rats, mice, primates, and countless other species. Dealing with all of this suffering, greed, and death tends to rob you of your emotions. You separate yourself from the pain – the pain of the animals – and your own. You start to function almost like the staff of animal laboratories. If you think in terms of the individual lives lost, it is far too painful.

Possibly the most common result of experimentation and confinement in the laboratory, at least for primates, is insanity. The laboratory environment is so artificial, so utterly contradictory to virtually every aspect of what is normal behavior for a primate, that insanity is almost inevitable. One such laboratory, where primates have lost their minds, is the University of Minnesota. Documents from this facility reveal very clearly what these monkeys endure. On 8/9/05, primate 05GP20 is listed as “Temp was up due to primate jumping back and forth wildly.” On 8/23/05, primate #312E shows evidence of self-mutilation: “did bite knee after observation.” Primate #45C on 3/21/06 is listed as “extremely thin, body condition is poor, severe alopecia . . . bruising on top of left ankle.” Monkey #45D on 11/15/05 is described: “. . . ripping hair from the armpit area and chewing on the fur, each time he would grab a tuft of fur he would vocalize.” Primate #25b was overdosed on 9/14/04 and was observed 11/15/05 “ . . . ripping hair from the armpit area and chewing on the fur, each time he would grab a tuft of hair he would vocalize.” Two separate primates are described this way. How many more are behaving like this without being noticed?

These terms describe lives of suffering, days of agony. The primates have little to look forward to other than the addictive drugs that at least temporarily remove them from reality.

Sometimes, when you least expect it, something reaches out and grabs you. It’s not what you wanted to happen, and there may not be anything particularly different about the information, but it touches you – and you just can’t let go.

“NHP was observed by LACT ripping hair from the armpit area and chewing on the fur, each time he would grab a tuft of hair he would vocalize.”

The picture that this sentence creates in my mind is so clear that it is inescapable. The psychic agony of this monkey is so abject, so pure, so utter that it can drown your soul.

The only rational reason that any human being could have for immersion in this world of cruelty is to end it. When I read about a puppy that has drowned in a floor drain (Michigan State University), a primate that was dissected while still alive (Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research), or a female sheep that died with two rotting lambs inside her womb (North Dakota State University), these things are at the same time both tragedies and truths. They are ghastly, and they are reality.

Each one of the thousands of pieces of paper that describe the horror of animal experimentation also describes some aspect of the life of an individual animal. The existence of these victims is sketched out one page at a time. They are not just statistics to be added and subtracted -- they are individuals whose lives matter.

It is our duty to make sure that their deaths were not in vain, that they do not go unnoticed. We must remember them and work to insure that no more animals share their suffering. The only way to end this tidal wave of misery is to abolish animal experimentation, once and for all. We must have only one goal – that all laboratory cages are empty!



Your donation of $25, $50, or $100 will help us to fight for millions of imprisoned and suffering animals. Larger gifts of $250, $500, or $1000 will help us to take on the 1100 laboratories that blanket the U.S. with animal exploitation. Your continuing financial support will make it possible for us to keep fighting the cruelty and abuse that is intrinsic to every animal experiment. Thank you in advance for your gift.


Dear Michael,

I, too, am shocked and saddened by the suffering of innocent animals in
labs today. This must be exposed and ENDED.

Please accept my tax-deductible donation to help with
this cause:

___ $25 ___ $50 ___ $100 ___$250 __ $500 ___ other

All information will be held in the strictest confidence and is for the exclusive use of: Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!

Mail Donations To:
Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!
1081-B St. Rt. 28 PMB 280 Milford, Ohio 45150
513-575-5517 [email protected]

Or Donate Online

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Fall 2008 Issue

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