Every year, millions of animals suffer and die in painful experiments conducted by pharmaceutical laboratories, contract testing facilities, and companies that breed animals to be sold for experimentation. All these places are bad news for animals, but when it comes to cruelty, some are worse than others.
PETA's list of the 10 worst CEOs for animals in laboratories shines the spotlight on these losers. It wasn't easy to choose just 10—so many CEOs lead companies that mutilate and kill animals—but these CEOs "won" based on their companies' history of federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations, the number of animals killed, the most painful and invasive experiments, and an unwillingness to make humane improvements.
As the world's leading breeder of dogs for use in painful and deadly experiments—and as the number one importer of primates for experimental purposes in the U.S.—Covance and its chief "executing" officer, Joseph Herring, peddle misery, suffering, and death. Covance is a contract testing company that tests everything from drugs to industrial chemicals to ingredients for cosmetics to tobacco products for client companies. In Covance tests, animals have had caustic chemicals dripped into their eyes and substances applied to their raw and abraded skin. They have been forced to ingest or inhale deadly toxins, and experimenters have intentionally induced cancer in animals. Horrific conditions and serious violations of federal law have been documented in Covance's facilities. Read More
PETA's undercover investigation of Covance's Vienna, Virginia, laboratory revealed that workers struck, choked, and tormented monkeys and that sick and injured monkeys received no veterinary care. Other primates circled frantically in their cages and chewed on their own flesh.
Covance's treatment of animals in laboratories makes Herring the undisputed chancellor of cruelty. Undercover video footage shot at Covance facilities reveals horrific abuse: Employees slammed monkeys against cages after the animals had dosing tubes rammed down their throats; a loose monkey was terrorized by a technician who slammed cages against walls to scare the animal out of hiding; monkeys had chronic rectal prolapses (painful protrusions of the intestines through the rectum) that resulted from constant stress and diarrhea; monkeys were dosed with large tubes that were forced up their nostrils and down into their stomachs, which caused choking, gagging, and daily bloody noses; monkeys self-mutilated as a result of Covance's failure to provide psychological enrichment and socialization; and injuries were left untreated until they became necrotic. See video footage documenting Covance's abuse of animals.
Based on PETA's documentation, Covance was cited and fined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for serious violations of the AWA.
Visit CovanceCruelty.com to read more about Herring's house of horrors and why he tops PETA's list of the worst CEOs.
Contact Covance's CEO:
Joseph L. Herring, CEO Covance 210 Carnegie Ctr. Princeton, NJ 08540 609-452-4440 1-888-268-2623 609-452-9375 (fax)
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James C. Foster is CEO of the world's largest breeder of animals for use in experiments and the second-largest importer of nonhuman primates into the U.S. A summary of Charles River Laboratories' AWA violations reads like a criminal indictment: inadequate veterinary care; failure to provide pain relief to suffering animals; inadequate housing, causing a high incidence of foot injuries in dogs; failure to investigate non-animal alternatives to experiments involving severe suffering; and at least a dozen other violations in 2005 alone. Read More
In 2005, the USDA cited Charles River Laboratories for 22 serious violations of the AWA. Criminal charges for institutional negligence and criminal cruelty to animals were filed against the company in 2004, but they were dropped because the cruelty statutes in the laboratory's jurisdiction do not apply to laboratories.
One Charles River–owned animal-testing laboratory in the U.K. was forced to close down after undercover investigations revealed high mortality rates and abysmal living conditions for the animals held captive there. Monkeys were killed because of deformities or because they were underweight. Primates were denied socialization or any other form of stimulation or environmental enrichment, and they engaged in stereotypical behaviors (e.g., continuous rocking, twisting, self-mutilation, and wailing).
Experiments on great apes have been banned or severely restricted in other countries; the Netherlands, New Zealand, the U.K., Sweden, Germany, and Japan have determined that chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, and orangutans are so similar to humans cognitively that using them in invasive experiments is unethical. That hasn't stopped James Foster and Charles River Laboratories—they just keep experimenting in countries (such as the U.S.) that have lax laws.
Charles River Laboratories' cruel treatment of animals is bad enough on its own, but such shoddy treatment of animals also affects the scientific validity of the company's experiments. According to veterinarian Andrew Knight, "[The experiments] raise substantial scientific concerns. … Charles River Laboratories' treatment of these animals has damaged them as experimental models. The scientific outcomes that resulted are likely to be even further removed from human outcomes than would be achieved by the use of healthy, non-stressed animals, as intended by the [Animal Welfare] Act. … Consequently, these experiments not only fail the humane and ethical standards required by the Animal Welfare Act, but also cannot be expected to provide scientifically reliable data."
Write to Foster, and tell him that you don't approve of his company's cruelty to animals:
James C. Foster, CEO Charles River Laboratories 251 Ballardvale St. Wilmington, MA 01887-1000 978-658-6000 978-658-7132 (fax)
Robert Essner's business involves a vicious cycle, in which impregnated horses are confined to stalls so small that the animals cannot turn around or take more than a single step in any direction. The mares are forced to wear rubber urine-collection bags at all times—which causes chafing and lesions—and their drinking water is limited so that their urine will yield more concentrated estrogen. All this is done to collect the horses' estrogen-rich urine in order to produce the menopause drug Premarin. Read More
The mares are impregnated again shortly after they give birth, and their babies are taken away from them within days. This cycle continues year after year until the mares become old, infertile, or crippled, at which point they are auctioned off for slaughter.
In 2002, the Women's Health Initiative (WHI)—a study involving more than 16,000 women who were using Prempro (Premarin plus progesterone)—was abruptly halted by the U.S. government, which concluded that the hormone-replacement therapy increases the risk of strokes by 41 percent, heart attacks by 29 percent, and breast cancer by 26 percent.
Wyeth now faces more than 5,000 lawsuits claiming that its hormone-replacement drugs caused breast cancer. Three women in Nevada have already been awarded a $134.5 million judgment against Wyeth. There are more than a dozen synthetic and plant-based menopause drugs available that safely and effectively ease the symptoms of menopause without causing horses to suffer and die.
Wyeth does not appear to be making any attempt to reduce the number of animals used in its tests, provide social and behavioral enrichment measures to the animals used, or extend animal welfare policies to any outside contract laboratories that it works with. In 2006, PETA submitted its third shareholder resolution calling for these changes, which was openly opposed by the company. Read about PETA's shareholder resolution campaign.
Tell Wyeth's CEO to say "Neigh!" to animal testing:
Robert Essner, CEO Wyeth 5 Giralda Farms Madison, NJ 07940-0874 973-660-5000 973-660-7026 (fax)
Under the dubious leadership of CEO Richard T. Clark, Merck developed Vioxx—formerly the best-selling painkiller—which was pulled off the market in 2004 after human studies showed that Vioxx users were three times more likely to suffer heart attacks or sudden cardiac death. Merck's reliance on misleading animal tests—which showed the painkiller to be safe—led to human injuries and deaths. Read More
In a precedent-setting case, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) alleged in court that Merck wrongfully relied on tests showing that Vioxx was safe in animals while ignoring mounting evidence that the drug was dangerous to humans. Clark's belief that mice, rats, and African green monkeys are more reliable than people for judging drug safety has landed Vioxx consumers in the hospital or in early graves. Clark proved that Vioxx was beneficial for mice and rats—who don't suffer from heart attacks, hypertension, and other cardiovascular problems—and ignored emerging data that linked Vioxx to congestive heart failure, heart attacks, and sudden cardiac death.
If there is any question as to why Merck plows ahead with pointless and dangerous animal testing, keep in mind that Vioxx was a bestseller and generated $2.5 billion for Merck in 2003 alone. Richard "Profits Before Safety" Clark knows a bottom line when he sees one, but he apparently can't recognize animal suffering and bad science, even though he is surrounded by it.
Many other drugs have appeared to be safe in animal tests but were proved to be dangerous in humans and vice versa. Rezulin, a diabetes drug, appeared to be safe in rats but caused fatal liver failure in humans. The opposite scenario is also common; for example, Tylenol is toxic to cats. Penicillin was discovered in 1929 but not used until a decade later because of its ineffectiveness at curing infections in rabbits. If it had been tested on cats, guinea pigs, or hamsters, this miracle drug for humans likely would have been deemed toxic and would have been abandoned.
"Merck was wrong to rely on data from mice, rats, and African green monkeys when faced with compelling evidence that human patients were at risk," says Dr. John J. Pippin, senior medical and research adviser for PCRM. "Ultimately, Merck's reliance on scientifically flawed animal tests led to human injury and death."
In 2006, PETA submitted its third resolution to Merck calling on the company to extend its animal welfare policy to include social and behavioral enrichment measures for the animals used and to ensure that any outside contract testing laboratories that Merck works with comply with the company's policy. Merck opposed the resolution and asked its shareholders to vote against it. Read about PETA's shareholder resolution campaign.
Contact Merck's CEO and tell him that you don't approve of cruel, pointless tests on animals:
Richard T. Clark, CEO Merck 1 Merck Dr. Whitehouse Station, NJ 08889-0100 908-423-1000 908-735-1253 (fax)
Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) is the third-largest contract testing company in the world. The company has been the subject of five undercover investigations exposing tremendous cruelty to animals. Every day, HLS CEO Andrew Baker oversees the torture, dismemberment, and death of an average of 500 animals—including rats, rabbits, pigs, dogs, and primates—who are forced to ingest and inhale all sorts of toxic chemicals, including toxic doses of pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, and pesticides and chemicals such as weedkillers and disinfectants. Read More
Under Baker's supervision, HLS tests household products such as detergents, tanning lotions, diet pills, plastic wraps, and coffee sweeteners. Huntingdon tested the failed food additive Olestra—a fat-free "oil"—and found it to be safe for animals; in humans, it caused anal leakage. Huntingdon also tested Viagra, which is now being implicated in dozens of cases of hearing loss and sudden blindness as well as 522 deaths—most of which were caused by cardiovascular problems.
With each investigation inside HLS, new horrors are revealed. Baker's employees at Huntingdon have been videotaped violently shaking and punching 4-month-old beagle puppies in the face, dissecting a conscious monkey, falsifying scientific data and procedures, and breaking other animal welfare laws. Leaked documents from Huntingdon reveal that this abuse is just the tip of the iceberg. Hundreds of monkeys and wild-caught baboons died during botched piglet heart and kidney transplant experiments because of more than 520 errors and omissions by HLS.
Huntingdon has become the Enron of animal-testing stocks since it was dropped by both the London and New York stock exchanges. Following protests by activists, Huntingdon stock was being sold for a penny a share—more than its research is worth but low enough to cause banks and financial supporters to back away.
Huntingdon Life Sciences is a contract testing company, which means that it is willing to torture and kill animals for the highest bidder. Huntingdon's clients have included the largest pharmaceutical, chemical, and cosmetics companies in the world. The best way to ensure that you are not using products that were tested at HLS is to boycott all companies that test on animals. Visit PETA's online searchable Caring Consumer Database to find out which companies do and which do not test on animals.
Write to Huntingdon's CEO and tell him that you don't approve of his company's cruelty to animals:
Andrew H. Baker, CEO Huntingdon Life Sciences Inc. Mettlers Road East Millstone, NJ 08875-2360 732-873-9961 732-649-0021 (fax)
Ryoichi Nagata is the CEO of Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories (SNBL) USA, Ltd., a contract testing laboratory that uses tens of thousands of primates and other animals every year in painful and lethal experiments to test products for other companies. SNBL is the third-largest importer of primates into the U.S. Government inspection reports of SNBL's laboratories paint a picture of extreme cruelty and neglect. Violations have shown that SNBL has failed to provide safe and adequate housing, veterinary care, and proper pain relief measures to suffering animals. Over one three-week period, 20 monkeys died from "extreme weight loss" and "emaciation." Read More
Government inspection reports reveal that SNBL injected animals with a highly toxic substance but provided no relief for their pain. Two animals died before the experiment was over, and the rest were killed. Dr. Shirley McGreal, founder and chair of the International Primate Protection League, commented, "In fact, it is likely that ALL animals on the study underwent terrible pain, stress, and suffering before being killed."
One monkey became so ill that she lost 32 percent of her bodyweight within 25 days of the experiment. Seven weeks into the chemical test, she had become sickened to the point of losing her appetite entirely. Despite this massive weight loss, the monkey continued to be dosed with the test chemical. She became lethargic and dehydrated, suffered from diarrhea, and had infected wounds on her body and tail. After three terrible months, she was finally put out of her misery and euthanized.
Dr. Nedim Buyukmihci, emeritus professor of veterinary medicine at the University of California, wrote the following about conditions at SNBL: "[N]ewly acquired marmosets [had been housed] in pairs in cages that were smaller than the minimum size required for this species under these circumstances. The records for these animals clearly showed they were extremely stressed, were not eating properly and were fighting. Twenty of the animals died or were killed due to deterioration under these conditions within the first month after acquisition. Furthermore, the SNBL [oversight committee] granted this investigator with an exemption with respect to cage sizes even though they were aware that problems were occurring."
Write to Nagata and let him know that you don't approve of his company's cruelty to animals:
Ryoichi Nagata, CEO SNBL USA, Ltd. 6605 Merrill Creek Pkwy. Everett, WA 98203 425-407-0121 425-407-8601 (fax)
President Rich Pilnik knows that at Boehringer Ingelheim Corp. (BI), it all comes out in the wash—but in BI's case, we're talking about dead monkeys. His company's negligence resulted in the deaths of three monkeys because of high-temperature cage washers. Add to these casualties dead and dying dogs, traumatized monkeys, and unqualified personnel, and it's little wonder that the USDA found 19 violations of the AWA at BI's facilities in the first nine months of 2005. Read More
Although BI isn't as notorious as some other big pharmaceutical animal abusers, its work in prescription medicines, biopharmaceuticals, pharmachemicals, and veterinary medicine is just as gruesome—and its use of animals is just as pointless and dangerous. Cymbalta, used for major depressive disorder, is one of the company's better-known drugs, but Pilnik also oversees drug development and testing of drugs for arthritis, hypertension, Parkinson's, restless leg syndrome, and more.
Rich "Pill Chucker" Pilnik has overseen experiments in which a beagle died of asphyxiation after becoming trapped between the bars of a cage, a cynomolgus monkey lost skin on both his hands when he was carelessly burned following surgery, and a rhesus monkey died after being run through a high-temperature cage washer. The USDA responded to these instances of abuse by levying a fine of $20,060—one of the largest fines assessed against an animal laboratory in recent years. The USDA inspector concluded that "[a]nimals died as a result of the negligent actions of some employees."
Write to BI's president and let him know that animal testing hurts animals used in experiments as well as humans:
Rich Pilnik, President Boehringer Ingelheim Corp. 900 Ridgebury Rd. Ridgefield, CT 06877 203-798-9988 1-800-243-0127 (toll-free) 203-791-6234 (fax)
Despite thousands of dead animals and millions of dollars spent by Novartis and its subsidiaries to develop animal organs for transplantation into humans, the company will never be able to transplant compassion into CEO Paulo Costa. Pointless and painful experiments in xenotransplantation—transplanting the organs of one species into another species—have been one of the greatest medical disasters of all time. Read More
Peddling transgenic pig parts and other organs designed to replace human parts is very profitable. The fact that these transplants are prohibitively expensive, of limited value, and always deadly hasn't slowed Costa's search for an immunopig.
Six thousand people are on waiting lists for human organs; while the problem of organ shortage could largely be solved through default consent to organ donation when people die, the use of animals as warehouses for spare parts continues. One hundred years of failed research shows that animals—even if they have transplanted human genes—do not have suitable spare parts for humans. Pigs are now being genetically manipulated to carry human genes in the hope that this catalog of failure and misery can be turned into a viable form of medical treatment. Other animals—such as hamsters, rabbits, and monkeys—have also been subjected to horrific and pointless transplantation experiments. But animals were never meant to be wrecking yards for human parts. All attempts to carry out animal-to-human organ transplants have failed. These surgeries are so monumentally unsuccessful that the animals usually begin to die within minutes of receiving an organ.
In Novartis' experiments, monkeys have endured lethal infections, lethal blood clotting, bleeding complications, viral and protozoal infections, lymph cancer, severe nausea, severe stomach inflammation and diarrhea, dehydration, fatal pneumonia, persistent wound infections, breakdowns, brain trauma, heart attacks, pneumonia, and anemia. Huge doses of immune-suppressing drugs have caused internal hemorrhaging.
A swab left in a monkey's abdomen by a Novartis employee caused a lethal infection, and similar incidents occurred on a regular basis. Sometimes the hearts or kidneys would simply not function after transplantation, and some pig organs were rejected almost instantaneously. Victims of these gruesome experiments were overdosed with anesthetics, and their spleens were removed. One pig's kidney was accidentally transplanted into the abdomen of a monkey, and the primate died shortly afterward. If monkeys and baboons survived surgery, they faced death by organ rejection and failure, infections resulting from drug toxicity, or severely impaired immune systems.
The danger isn't only a risk for the animals used in the experiments. Some viruses carried by animals are impossible to eradicate and can infect humans—potentially with catastrophic results, such as the deadly influenza epidemic of 1918 that killed millions of people, mad cow disease, HIV, and the recent avian flu epidemic. This threatens human patients who would receive pig organs, and scientists across the globe are concerned that these viruses might pass into the general population, causing an epidemic that could affect all of us.
Read more about the disturbing "Frankenscience" carried out by companies like Novartis.
Write to Costa and let him know that Novartis' preposterous venture will never result in cures for ailing and aging humans:
Paulo Costa, CEO Novartis Corporation 608 Fifth Ave. New York, NY 10020 212-307-1122 212-246-0185 (fax)
The three blind mice of the nursery rhyme had it easy compared to the more than 2.4 million transgenic mice created and destroyed yearly by CEO Richard P. Woychik' Jackson Laboratory. Jackson Lab sells millions of genetically mutated mice to laboratories in the U.S. and 52 other countries. These mice, who aren't even protected by the Animal Welfare Act, endure horrendous suffering. Read More
Mice are highly sensitive, intelligent, and social animals who suffer greatly in experiments. They don't normally contract many of the diseases that they are used as "models" for, and they respond differently to diseases and treatments. While it might be profitable for The Jackson Laboratory, using mice as test tubes with whiskers costs human lives by wasting resources on pointless experiments that fail to yield useful results.
Mice and rats—along with birds, reptiles, and amphibians—are denied the minimal protections afforded by the AWA, and vivisectors are not even required to count how many of these animals they torture and kill. It's estimated that 100 million transgenic mice—like those with inserted human genes—are killed in U.S. laboratories every year.
The creation of transgenic animals like The Jackson Laboratory's "JAX Mice" is responsible for an explosion in the number of animals who suffer and die in U.S. laboratories. Genes are inserted into the mice in an attempt to make them more like humans, yet transgenic mice have proved to be remarkably ineffective as models for human disease. A new technique—genome-wide analysis, which uses human DNA, not animals—appears to be much more relevant.
Mice endure horrendous suffering in laboratories, including having their heads cut off with scissors, a routine practice that PETA documented at the University of North Carolina. Our undercover investigator reported that "[m]ice with bleeding, oozing sores and enormous tumors were left to die, while those who survived were crowded into cages and abused in painful experiments."
Another investigator reported "[a] researcher telling me that he is supposed to (but doesn't) numb young rats with ice … before cutting their heads off with scissors and removing their brains. Even very young rats scream, and I won't ever forget that for as long as I live."
Learn more about what happens to mice in laboratories by reading about PETA's investigations of the University of North Carolina.
Read more about the hidden lives of mice and rats.
Write to Woychik, and tell him that you do not approve of his company's cruelty to animals:
Richard P. Woychik, CEO The Jackson Laboratory 600 Main St. Bar Harbor, ME 04609 207-288-6000 207-288-6150 (fax)
Between May 2004 and August 2006, 10 USDA inspections of Jeffrey B. Kindler's Pfizer animal research laboratories revealed multiple violations of animal protection laws. Inside Pfizer's laboratories, the body of a cat missing for nearly a month was found in a drain line, a dog was scalded to death by the automatic cage washer, and other animals suffered stress and untreated infections in a laboratory reeking of excrement. Multiple violations of U.S. law by Pfizer were clearly detailed in USDA inspection reports of the six research facilities where Pfizer conducts animal experiments: Macaque monkeys had stress-induced hair loss on 50 percent of their bodies, and other animals, in their traumatized condition, chewed and pulled the hair off cagemates, a malady known as "barbering." Read More
To avoid scrutiny and regulation, Pfizer has begun transferring animal testing to China, where, according to a recent article in Forbes magazine, "scientists are cheap and plentiful and pesky protesters [are] held at bay." The article also cited a pharmaceutical industry executive who admitted that companies in China lack quality control and high standards for treatment.
The pharmaceutical industry is a massive user of animals to test drugs, even though there are extensive and critical differences among species in the absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, pharmacologic action, and toxicity of substances—all of which make animal trials poor predictors of human results. In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration reported that 92 percent of drugs that tested safe and effective in animals were found to be either unsafe or ineffective in humans.
This isn't the first time that Pfizer has been targeted by PETA. In 2006, PETA submitted a shareholder resolution to Pfizer that called on the company to extend its animal welfare policy to include social and behavioral enrichment measures for the animals used, to ensure that any outside contract testing laboratories that Pfizer works with comply with the policy, and to address the issue of Pfizer's donations to support animal tests.
Read about PETA's shareholder resolution campaign.
Tell Jeffrey "Unkind" Kindler that you don't approve of his company's cruelty to animals:
Jeffrey B. Kindler, CEO Pfizer 235 E. 42nd St. New York, NY 10017-5755 212-573-2323
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