Following a complaint from PETA alleging the painful and horrific deaths of two monkeys at the hands of pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has not only confirmed the allegations and cited the company for egregious violations of the Animal Welfare Act but also took the additional rare step of fining the facility $2,625 for the violations. 

Playing Fast and Loose With Animals' Lives

PETA submitted the complaint to the USDA after a whistleblower reported that a monkey and a rat had been scalded to death at a Bristol-Myers Squibb laboratory in New Jersey when their cages were run through the high-pressure cage washer with the animals still inside. The trapped animals endured intense agony and terror as the blistering-hot water burned their flesh.

The whistleblower also reported that another monkey strangled to death after she was attached to the front of her cage—apparently by some sort of tether—then left unattended. PETA's complaint asked the agency to investigate these deaths and to hit the corporation where it hurts—in its bank account.

How You Can Help

We hope the fine has gotten Bristol-Myers Squibb's attention, and PETA—which holds stock in the company so that it can raise these issues with the board and stockholders—will continue to push for an end to relying on cruel and unreliable animal tests by switching to superior, modern non-animal methods. Please ask Bristol-Myers Squibb to make sure that these recommendations are implemented.

Update: The Israeli attorney general has decreed that the High Court must permanently halt this shipment of monkeys, citing that it is illegal to transport monkeys captured in the wild for experiments and that Israeli authorities had not approved the use of the animals for the type of experiments that Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories sought to perform.

Thanks to the efforts of the Israeli animal-protection organizations Behind Closed Doors and Let the Animals Live, with assistance from PETA, a shipment of 90 monkeys destined for a laboratory has been halted, at least temporarily. The monkeys were to be shipped from Mazor Farm, an infamous monkey-breeding facility in Israel, to Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories (SNBL), a testing laboratory and primate supplier in the United States.

Crude, Cruel, and Illegal

Armed with information supplied by PETA, Let the Animals Live presented evidence to the High Court of Justice in Israel demonstrating how SNBL torments animals and repeatedly violated U.S. animal welfare laws. Israeli officials also reviewed scientific data showing that primates make poor models of human disease and for predicting drug response in humans. Additionally, Israeli law does not allow the export of wild-caught monkeys, and we pointed out to Israeli authorities that 70 of these 90 monkeys were torn away from their families in the wild.

In response to these compelling arguments, the Israeli attorney general decreed that this shipment is legally problematic, and the High Court has halted the shipment, demanding that SNBL produce its own evidence showing how it plans to use the monkeys in experiments.

Making Sure Cruelty Won't Fly

PETA also contacted the airline that had been prepared to accept this shipment and urged it to join the growing number of airlines that refuse to transport primates to laboratories.

Stay tuned—if the Israeli government does ultimately allow the shipment to proceed, we may ask you to contact this airline and demand that it stop delivering primates to be tortured in experiments.

In light of Merck's record of failing to provide even the most minimal care to animals used in its experiments, PETA has filed a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical giant for violating PETA's shareholder rights and refusing to include a proposal by PETA—a Merck stockholder—among the 2012 proxy materials that are being considered at the company's upcoming annual meeting. PETA is asking the court to order Merck to include the proposal and give shareholders the chance to cast an informed vote on it.

What Is Merck Trying to Hide?

PETA's proposal simply requests an annual report on Merck's "procedures to ensure proper animal care, including measures to improve the living conditions of all animals used in-house and at contract laboratories"—but the drugmaker has refused, apparently preferring to conceal from shareholders how Merck and its contractors have repeatedly violated federal animal welfare laws. Since 2008 alone, Merck's violations have included caging primates in isolation, inadequate anesthesia procedures and housing of animals, and lack of veterinary care and personnel training, just to name a few.

Merck's record is especially disturbing since, in the last three years alone, it has used tens of thousands of primates, dogs, rabbits, hamsters, and guinea pigs in experiments—including more than 16,000 animals in painful tests, thousands of whom were given no pain relief whatsoever. Shareholders have a right to know what the company is doing to prevent further violations of animal welfare laws, don't you think?

A primate at a Covance primate testing lab.

Update: After receiving PETA's request for an investigation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that Bristol-Myers Squibb was to blame for the hanging death of the monkey and cited the company for violating the Animal Welfare Act.

 As if being locked inside a laboratory and treated like a living test tube weren't torture enough, a whistleblower informed PETA that a monkey and a rat were recently scalded to death at pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb's laboratory in Pennington, New Jersey. Their cages were run through the high-pressure cage washer with the animals still inside, causing the trapped animals intense agony and terror as the blistering-hot water burned their flesh.

Also according to the whistleblower, another monkey strangled to death after she was attached to the front of her cage, apparently by some sort of leash, and then left unattended. All three of these tragic deaths, which reportedly occurred over a six-month period, could have been easily prevented. So what's going on at Bristol-Myers?

A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection report substantiates the whistleblower's report of a monkey dying in the cage washer, and based on this, PETA suspects that the other allegations are also true. But it's Bristol-Myers Squibb's turn to be in hot water now: PETA has submitted complaints to the USDA and the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, asking both to investigate and hit the multibillion-dollar company where it hurts—in its bank account—if these allegations are true.

But what the pharma giant really must do is stop subjecting tens of thousands of dogs, rabbits, mice, rats, and monkeys to imprisonment, pain, and death. PETA, which holds stock in Bristol-Myers Squibb specifically for the purpose of addressing the company's board and stockholders, has submitted a shareholder resolution urging it to reduce the company's reliance on animal tests by switching to modern, non-animal methods and to provide greater transparency of its animal testing practices. Please, click here to ask Bristol-Myers Squibb's CEO to take personal responsibility for making sure that these recommendations are implemented.

Ssppeeeddyy | cc by 2.0

A bit of good news from the Great White North: After years of pressure from animal rights activists—and after hearing from PETA recently—Air Canada, one of only two major North American airlines that still fly primates to laboratories, is taking steps to end the shipments. The airline has requested permission from the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) to enact a ban on transporting primates destined for experiments, a practice that the CTA currently requires Air Canada to engage in. PETA had been in contact with Air Canada about its policy as part of an international campaign to stop airlines from transporting primates to laboratories, where they will be caged, experimented on, and killed. 

Recently, PETA exposed appalling cruelty to monkeys at one of the largest importers of primates in the U.S.—Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories (SNBL) in Everett, Washington—after being contacted by a distraught worker there. The photos and video footage recorded by the whistleblower show sick, distressed monkeys suffering after being injected with chemicals and subjected to violent handling.

Please support the growing number of compassionate and progressive airlines—including Delta, American Airlines, and British Airways—that are saying "No" to primate abuse, and click here to ask the Canadian Transport Authority to grant Air Canada's request to ban the shipment of primates to labs.