Pain and Suffering, All in a Day’s Work

Many of the animals used in Menu Foods studies were in constant pain. Although the U.S. federal Animal Welfare Act prohibits the use of slatted flooring that endangers animals’ health and well-being, PETA’s investigator saw numerous dogs with their legs caught between the bars of slatted cage floors. Many of the dogs had swollen and inflamed paw pads from walking on the slatted steel for months on end. Most of their toenails were so long that they could hardly walk without slipping. Our investigator videotaped one dog who had such severe injuries from the slatted flooring that both her hind legs were cut to the bone. This miserable dog, identified only as (H)8J483, was left to suffer for seven days without any painkillers until the veterinary technicians finally killed her. Her body parts were sold to other companies.

Inexcusable Neglect
Many animals also desperately needed their teeth cleaned because they were not allowed to chew on anything hard—all they got to eat was canned food. When PETA’s investigator inquired about teeth cleanings, she was told that the researcher at Menu Foods would not let the animals “take a break” from the studies in order to undergo this basic procedure.

When one dog stopped eating, the veterinary technicians agreed to examine her at our investigator’s request. Initially, the apathetic technicians could not figure out what was wrong, but after several examinations, they realized that the dog’s teeth were brown with tartar buildup and her gums were red and swollen. After five months of suffering this way, the vet techs finally cleaned her teeth.

PETA’s investigator also found that many cats were lacking proper veterinary care. A kitten was even killed while having her blood drawn; the director of the laboratory believed that the kitten may have died because she was squeezed too tightly. Another cat had discharge coming from his eyes (a common problem—it was suspected that chlamydia was spreading around the laboratory), and the veterinary technicians missed several of his treatments, causing the cat to suffer even more.

A cat used in a Menu Foods study whom PETA’s investigator had befriended had a large cut on his chin. The vet techs told our investigator that this unfortunate cat was “evil,” and instead of treating the cat humanely, they put betadine in a spray bottle and tried to spray the cat in the face from outside the cage, squirting him in the mouth and causing him to salivate profusely. Later, the technicians indicated that the “problem was resolved,” yet the investigator saw that the cut looked much worse and informed the lab’s director of the cat’s condition. Although the vet techs were told to euthanize the cat immediately, he suffered for five more days before the vet techs finally got around to destroying him.

A shy, sweet dog used in another Menu Foods experiment, identified as HJDMFT, had both a rash on her inside thigh and a purple mass on her abdomen. Our investigator had to submit several veterinary request cards to staff before the dog was seen. She was diagnosed as having a mammary tumor and folliculitis (a bacterial infection of the hair follicles), and she cried when handled because the tumor had become inflamed and hot to the touch by the time she was seen by a vet on August 21, 2002. The suffering dog was not treated, and her condition steadily worsened until finally, on September 26, she was killed. HJDMFT, who looked as if she could be the dog next door, had spent 42 days in hell before her death.

Oversight Overlooked
During the nine months that PETA’s investigator worked in the laboratory, she never saw a Menu Foods representative come to observe the conditions that the animals were forced to endure, nor was she asked for any records on the animals. Shortly before our investigator quit her job at the lab, the lab director ordered the vet techs to debark all the dogs because he was being disturbed by their desperate cries for attention. A vet tech told our investigator that a researcher in Menu Foods’ New Jersey office gave permission for the dogs’ vocal chords to be cut out.