PETA Statement on Animal Welfare Violations at Toxikon Corporation

For Immediate Release:
June 25, 2021

Contact:
Amanda Hays 202-483-7382

PETA Vice President Dr. Alka Chandna’s statement regarding a just-obtained federal document indicating a critical animal welfare violation at Toxikon Corporation in Bedford, Massachusetts:

Force-feeding potentially poisonous chemicals to vulnerable dogs, monkeys, rabbits, and other animals in painful and deadly tests is business as usual for the contract killers at Bedford-based Toxikon Corporation, but incompetence and a culture of disregard add to the animals’ suffering. According to a just-posted federal inspection report obtained by PETA, experimenters failed to notify veterinarians that a rabbit was in serious decline and had experienced a 27% loss of bodyweight. The animal was found trapped in an e-collar, which resulted in “a laceration and swelling of the muzzle … causing narrowing of the animal’s airway leading to respiratory distress.”

Toxikon has a history of serious animal welfare violations, and federal reports document no fewer than 10 violations since 2017. A rabbit sustained a spinal fracture because of improper handling and had to be killed, an animal died while being anesthetized because an experimenter failed to open a valve, and a dog died unattended on a surgical table when experimenters failed to notify veterinarians of his elevated respiratory rate. The tens of thousands of animals experimented on and killed every year in Toxikon’s laboratories feel pain and value their lives just as much as any of the company’s executives—so Toxikon would do well to modernize its testing program by leaving archaic and cruel animal tests behind and using only sophisticated, human-relevant testing methods.