Update: After reviewing evidence submitted by PETA, the National Institutes of Health has reprimanded the University of Colorado–Denver (CU) for repeatedly violating federal animal welfare guidelines in its laboratories, criticized it for not reporting the problems, and ordered the university to repay grant money used for noncompliant experiments on animals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's investigation into CU's laboratories is still underway.

Originally posted January 29:

It's starting to feel like déjà vu: PETA has once again filed formal complaints with the federal government about the abuse of animals in laboratories at the University of Colorado–Denver (CU). Through a state open-records request, PETA has just learned that the same neglect and incompetence that we documented there in a 2007 investigation are still occurring.

The records show that during just the past two years, at least 60 animal welfare incidents—dozens of which may constitute violations of federal law and guidelines—have occurred, including the following:

• A worker broke a rabbit's back as the rabbit struggled against the worker's restraint. The paralyzed animal was still used in an experiment before she was finally killed.
• Experimenters induced cancer in animals and then ineptly cut off the resulting tumors, leaving the animals—who were given no pain relief—with large, gaping wounds.
• Live mice and rats were found in a freezer where dead animals were discarded.
• Twenty guinea pigs died or were killed after a worker injected them with an antibiotic intended for rats.
• A careless employee threw a box of live animals into the trash, leaving the animals to die slowly.

Based on PETA's undercover investigation, in 2007, the U.S. Department of Agriculture cited CU for serious violations of the Animal Welfare Act and also issued the university an official warning letting it know that it would be fined $10,000 per incident if it were found violating the law again. It's time for the government to follow through on that warning and stop CU's abuses for good.

How You Can Help  

Please ask the federal government to stop funding cruel animal experiments and to put your tax dollars toward modern, humane non-animal research methods.

People have been safely using toothpaste, dish soap, and other household products for generations, but that didn’t stop REACH, the European Union's massive chemical-testing program, from torturing and killing about 200,000 animals in tests on the ingredients in these products, among many other chemicals. A recent report by the agency that oversees REACH reveals that companies are ignoring the requirement to use every available alternative to experimenting on animals and are instead putting thousands of animals through suffering that most people wouldn't wish on their worst enemy.

According to the U.K.'s Daily Mail, "Among these 'unnecessary' tests were 188 studies on eye irritation carried out on rabbits; 336 skin sensitisation studies on guinea pigs or mice; 254 short-term toxicity tests on fish; and 33 genetic toxicity tests on mice."

PETA U.K. is calling out the government officials responsible for enforcing REACH by placing this ad in an influential European politics magazine, The Parliament, and asking Europeans to write to the European Commission.

In related news, PETA and its international affiliates have written to the European Chemicals Agency, which oversees REACH, demanding a moratorium on reproductive toxicity testing until a newly approved refinement―that can spare hundreds of thousands of animals―is in place.   

In the meantime, you can help animals on both sides of the pond by buying only cruelty-free products. Visit the PETA Living page for lists of companies that do and don’t test on animals.

 
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

Tragic news from the U.K.: A huge fire at an animal-breeding center in southwest England early Tuesday morning killed more than 350 guinea pigs, (some reports are indicating that as many as 1,000 animals may have died, including guinea pigs, rabbits, and rats).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jreed/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Police believe the fire may have been caused by an electrical fault, but mass-breeding facilities are notorious for keeping animals in dangerous and inadequate conditions and neglecting even their most basic needs for safety, food, water, exercise, and veterinary care. Case in point: U.S. Global Exotics, where PETA's undercover investigator found, among other abuses, that animals were being confined to soda bottles and milk jugs and tossed into freezers to die slowly instead of being taken to a veterinarian.

Let's hope that this tragic fire causes people to realize that confining animals and forcing them to bring more offspring into a world that already doesn't have enough good homes for all the guinea pigs, rabbits, and rats who already exist is never in the animals' best interest.

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

zazzle / CC

Unlike the animated stars of G-Force, real guinea pigs aren't superheroes at all. If they were, they would immediately vaporize the human monsters who subject them to crude and painful experiments.

Every year, more than 200,000 guinea pigs are abused and killed in cruel experiments—they are forced to breathe tobacco smoke, they are locked in chambers for hours at a time and forced to listen to noises as loud as a jet engine, and pregnant guinea pigs are given alcohol to cause birth defects in their babies. Of course, common sense and human-based research tells us that drinking alcohol while pregnant is a no-no, standing next to an airplane when it's taking off is not so good on the ears, and smoking cigarettes can cause disease in nearly every organ of the body.

Wait until Agent Darwin hears about this!

Written by Justin Goodman, Research Associate Supervisor

flixter / CC

Two things we like about Disney's new movie, G-Force: The guinea pigs aren't real (they're computer-generated), and they totally kick butt.

But here's something we don't like: Kids who see the movie are no doubt going to beg Mom and Dad to buy them a guinea pig, pleading their case with the usual promises ("I'll take out the trash and clean up my room." "I'll stop telling my brother he is adopted." Etc.)

Since we all know these promises are as empty as a box of Teddy Grahams 30 seconds into a PETA volunteer work party: Parents, don't fall for it. Guinea pigs are not, I repeat not suitable "starter pets" for kids. They are noisy, are messy, have sensitive digestive systems, and are extremely fragile—a fall from a couch can break a guinea pig's back and paralyze him or her. They may be small, but guinea pigs require huge amounts of time, money, and care—including daily cage cleanings, regular nail trimming and grooming, annual veterinary exams, high-quality food, fresh fruits and vegetables, vitamin C to prevent scurvy, as well as daily exercise and attention.

So, Mom and Dad, repeat after me: "What happens in a Disney movie stays in a Disney movie." You wouldn't bring Hannah Montana home, so please don't bring Suarez, Darwin, and Blaster home either.

Written by Alisa Mullins