Photos of Dogs En Route to Labs Prompts PETA to Target Lufthansa

Group Calls On Airline to Join Others in Banning the Transport of Animals Who Are Destined for Mutilation and Death in Laboratories

For Immediate Release:
April 14, 2010

Contact:
Ian Smith 757-622-7382

East Meadow, N.Y. -- PETA has called on international airline company Lufthansa to stop transporting animals to laboratories after the group obtained photos of at least 50 beagles confined to crates on a Lufthansa cargo plane at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. The dogs were being sent from Marshall Farms (aka "Marshall BioResources"), an animal-breeding facility in upstate New York, to a Charles River Laboratories (CRL) animal-testing facility in Scotland, where they were likely poisoned in cruel and crude drug and pesticide tests. Photos of beagles on a Lufthansa cargo plane may be viewed here.

PETA is particularly concerned because Wilmington, Mass.-based CRL, which is one of the world's largest breeders and users of animals for experiments, has a long history of violating animal protection laws. The company was recently fined $14,000 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture after 32 monkeys were literally cooked to death when a room at the company's facility in Reno, Nev., overheated and employees ignored an alarm alerting them to the malfunction. Another monkey was scalded to death after he was left in his cage as it was sent through a high-temperature cage washer. Since 2007, the company has been cited for more than two dozen violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

Marshall Farms is a major breeder of dogs, pigs, and ferrets for use in experiments. In recent experiments, dogs from Marshall Farms had their spinal cords severed and their stomachs cut open to test surgical staplers. After the experiments, the dogs were killed. The company has been cited for more than 20 violations of the AWA since 2007, including failure to provide adequate veterinary care to animals.

"By transporting animals for Charles River, Lufthansa is helping a business that condemns tens of millions of animals to confinement, mutilation, poisoning, and death in laboratories," says PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "Lufthansa should let animal abusers know that cruelty doesn't fly."

In 2007, Air Canada stopped shipping dogs to laboratories after passengers complained about hearing dogs who were being shipped from Marshall barking in the cargo hold. Major airline carriers Cathay Pacific and Qantas also refuse to transport animals destined for laboratories, and many other airlines restrict the practice.

For more information, please visit StopAnimalTests.com.