Animal-Testing Behemoths to Hear From PETA at Annual Meetings

Resolutions Filed With Covance, Charles River Laboratories Call for Transparency and Accountability

For Immediate Release:
May 9, 2017

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

PETA will present its shareholder resolutions to animal-testing facilities Charles River Laboratories (CRL) and Covance at the companies’ annual meetings on May 9 and 11, respectively. PETA owns just enough stock in CRL and Covance’s parent company, LabCorp, to introduce resolutions to expose the suffering of millions of animals—including primates, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, rats, and mice—used by these companies in cruel and deadly experiments each year.

PETA’s CRL resolution calls for the company to stop working with primate dealers and laboratories that have repeatedly violated the federal Animal Welfare Act or are under investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. CRL has purchased monkeys from SNBL and Primate Products, Inc.—two companies that have multiple animal-welfare violations stretching back years, causing the suffering and deaths of monkeys. PETA’s Covance resolution requests that the company report its plans to address the public-health threat posed by the Zika virus at its enormous primate facility in Texas, which holds thousands of monkeys in outdoor pens, where they could easily be bitten by infected mosquitos.

“Shareholders have a right to know if their companies are working with unscrupulous primate dealers or harboring a potential reservoir for the dangerous Zika virus,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. “PETA’s resolutions call for sensible accountability and change to improve conditions for animals and protect humans.”

Both CRL and Covance routinely violate federal animal-welfare regulations. At CRL, 30 monkeys baked to death when a heating system malfunctioned, and another monkey was scalded to death when her cage was run through a high-temperature washer while she was still locked inside. A PETA eyewitness investigation at Covance revealed that workers struck, choked, and screamed curses at confused and terrified monkeys. In recent years, monkeys at Covance sustained serious orthopedic injuries as a result of careless handling, and 13 monkeys died of hyperthermia when a thermostat malfunctioned.

PETA’s shareholder resolutions are available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.