In response to a series of significant animal welfare violations and complaints filed by PETA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has taken the rare step of fining the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) almost $12,000 for repeated violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. ONPRC imprisons, sickens, terrorizes, and mutilates thousands of monkeys each year in experiments with impunity, so it's good to know that the facility will be punished for causing animals to suffer more by failing to uphold even minimum standards.

A Record of Recklessness

The violations, which took place in 2009, included the escape of nine monkeys from the facility as well as the deaths of five other monkeys from a variety of causes, including from dehydration, being injected with unapproved compounds, and improper procedures performed by an inadequately trained employee. Following the escape, PETA called on the USDA to investigate and issue a fine to ONPRC.

In 2007, PETA conducted a shocking undercover investigation, which exposed horrific laboratory conditions at ONPRC. The next year, the USDA issued an "official warning"—the precursor to a fine—to ONPRC. Internal documents obtained by PETA had revealed that a sick pregnant monkey died after being denied veterinary care, that a surgical sponge was left in a baboon—causing an abscess—and was discovered only after he was killed for an experiment, and that experimenters mistakenly performed surgery on the wrong monkey. After repeatedly finding negligence and callous disregard, federal investigators are finally speaking the only language that ONPRC understands: dollars and cents.

What You Can Do

Take a stand for the animals imprisoned at ONPRC. Ask the National Institutes of Health to stop funding cruel and useless nicotine experiments on animals at ONPRC and elsewhere.

An employee of a New Jersey PetSmart store has been charged with three counts of cruelty to animals after allegedly punching a cat, attacking another, and killing a rabbit at his girlfriend's home. One of the cats was injured so severely that he had to be euthanized.
 

 
PetSmart has "suspended" the alleged animal killer. That's not much, but it is way more than the chain has ever done when allegations of abuse surfaced against its animal supplier mills, like Sun Pet and Rainbow World Exotics. Or when customers and whistleblowers around the country have reported filthy, severely crowded cages; comatose animals who were lying on cage floors; and animals who were suffering from deadly, contagious diseases in PetSmart stores. A PETA undercover investigation at a Connecticut PetSmart store revealed that sick and injured animals were deprived of veterinary care and left to die slowly in the "sick room" out of public view. Yet PetSmart continues to buy and sell living beings as if they were squeaky toys.

You can help by refusing to shop at PetSmart until it stops selling animals.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

Angel's Gate, Inc., is a self-proclaimed animal "hospice and rehabilitation center" that promises guardians that "special needs animals" will "live out their days in peace, dignity and love." But a new PETA undercover investigation has revealed shocking, systemic, and sometimes fatal neglect of the animals taken to this deceptive Delhi, N.Y., facility. PETA has submitted a formal complaint to the local prosecutor and is calling for a criminal investigation and immediate veterinary assessment of all animals still languishing at Angel's Gate. PETA has also turned over evidence to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and to various New York State regulatory officials.

 
PETA's investigation found that Angel's Gate executive director Susan Marino kept animals in crowded, inhumane conditions, leading to fights over space and food and injuries that were then left untreated. Animals were denied veterinary care and medications for pain, seizures, tumors, infections, and open wounds; one such animal, Malcolm, was left to deteriorate for roughly two weeks, until he could not stand, walk, or eat, before he finally died. Despite the availability of wheelchair carts, Marino forced paraplegic dogs to drag themselves around. Animals who needed to have their bladders expressed were placed in diapers until they urinated on themselves, resulting in urine scald. A miniature horse at the facility, Mimi, died after she was denied treatment for severe respiratory distress. Months after Mimi's death, Marino is still soliciting donations for the horse's care on her website.

Please take a moment to e-mail Delaware County District Attorney Richard Northrup Jr. and politely ask him to investigate Angel's Gate, get immediate help for the animals there, and file suitable cruelty-to-animals and other criminal charges against Susan Marino.

And please promise your animal companions today that you will always be there for them, especially in the most difficult times of their lives. They depend on us to prevent and alleviate their suffering; when veterinary care cannot provide that, please give them the relief and dignity of humane euthanasia. Shipping animals off to a facility in the hope that they will die there peacefully fails them, as this investigation clearly shows.

Written by Paula Moore

Authorities recently raided Dutch animal dealer and breeding mill Reintjes—a supplier of U.S. Global Exotics (USGE)—and  found animals crammed in cages in a dark warehouse with no working fan to combat stale air and the stench of urine and feces. Many animals had no access to food or water, and many were starving. Authorities seized every animal on the premises—5,900 in all, including mice, rats, hamsters, and birds—from Reintjes' owners, who already had criminal records for cruelty to animals.
 

 
Reintjes was a global supplier of animals to the pet trade. In 2009 alone, it supplied 112,546 animals to USGE, a major supplier of animals to wholesale dealers and pet stores in the U.S.—including PETCO and PetSmart suppliers Rainbow World Exotics and Sun Pet—until it was shut down following a PETA undercover investigation. USGE, which purchased rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, chinchillas, chipmunks, tree squirrels, and other animals from Reintjes, shared the Dutch company's view of animals as disposable commodities. Authorities raiding USGE found live animals shoved into soda bottles and tiny food storage containers; animals with severe, untreated injuries; a widespread lack of food, water, and adequate housing; and sick animals left to die. In fact, on the day of the seizure, an unpacked shipment of hundreds of chinchillas and hamsters from Reintjes was among the first things authorities found.

There is no word yet on whether Reintjes will be shut down permanently, but we will release updates as we have them. It is impossible to patronize pet stores like PETCO and PetSmart that sell live animals without supporting abusive animal dealers and breeding mills. Please, purchase your animal supplies at stores that don't sell live animals.
 

Written by Michelle Sherrow