'Mad Scientist' and His 'Monkey' Will Confront Covance Shareholders

PETA Set to Grill Company Executives at Annual Meeting Over the Use of Archaic and Deadly Animal Tests

For Immediate Release:
May 5, 2010

Contact:
Amanda Fortino 757-622-7382

Princeton, N.J. -- Shareholders attending Covance's annual meeting this week will get an idea of exactly what the company does to make its money, courtesy of PETA. Protesting outside the meeting, a "mad scientist" in a "blood"-spattered white coat will inject and cut open his research subject--a PETA member dressed as a monkey--who will be locked in a restraining device. Holding signs that read, "Covance Tortures Monkeys," protesters will show passersby photographs of primates who have been abused inside the Princeton-based animal testing giant's laboratories. Inside the meeting, Dr. Alka Chandna, PETA's laboratory oversight specialist, will question company executives about what progress they're making in switching to modern non-animal methods and moving away from excruciatingly painful circa-1920s tests--including smearing chemicals onto the skin of restrained rabbits and poisoning animals with toxins:

When:   Thursday, May 6, 7:30 a.m.
Where:  Princeton Marriott Hotel & Convention Center at Forrestal, 100 College Rd. E. (near the intersection of Springdale Road and College Road W.), Princeton  

"Covance shareholders should know that they are bankrolling the torment and abuse of monkeys and other animals, not state-of-the-art science," says PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "Superior, non-animal methods are readily available for many of these tests, but Covance is still forcing animals to live in perpetual fear, suffer in crude tests, and die in pain."

Effective, humane, and economical non-animal testing methods are available and have been endorsed by federal regulatory agencies in both the U.S. and Europe as replacements for crude and cruel animal tests. Yet Covance continues to drag its feet and offer archaic and deadly animal-based tests.

PETA has also obtained U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection reports from recent years that cite Covance for failing to provide veterinary care to sick and injured animals, failing to provide caged primates with psychological enrichment, and failing to provide adequate pain relief to animals who undergo invasive surgeries. One of the violations involved a case in which a monkey with a broken leg was deprived of veterinary care and suffered for four days before he was euthanized. There are many alternatives to animal testing, including computer and mathematical models and human tissue and cell cultures.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.