IN THIS ISSUE
You will remember that last spring, NASA launched 96 rats (including nursing babies), 225 swordtail fish, four oyster toadfish and 1,500 crickets aboard the Columbia “Neurolab” space shuttle. Whistleblowers from NASA contacted PETA to condemn the mission. They said previous flights had shown that rats get soaked with their own urine in zero gravity and can’t nurse their babies. Yet, despite overwhelming evidence that the infants wouldn’t survive, NASA spent 100 million tax dollars to fund these experiments.
As we saw on the news, more than 50% of the rats on board Columbia died in space, and PETA lodged a formal complaint with the Office of Inspector General at NASA. Now, I am happy to report, NASA has initiated an investigation and suspended plans to fly another Neurolab mission!
Other PETA adversaries have also suffered setbacks. Bobby Berosini, the orangutan beater we caught on videotape, has been forced to make his first payment of a judgement awarded PETA after Berosini’s “invasion of privacy” lawsuit against us failed. And Huntingdon Life Sciences—charged by the U.S. Department of Agriculture with 23 violations of the Animal Welfare Act after a PETA undercover investigation—is so beleaguered, it suspended trading of its stock in August and its president resigned.
Thank you for all you do for animals,
Ingrid Newkirk, President
