"MPI is a 12-year-old company that conducts early-stage drug-development trials for pharmaceutical companies."
Article:
Animal-rights group requests federal investigation of MPI
http://www.mlive.com/business/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/
business-4/1192546210269060.xml&coll=7
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
BY ALEX NIXON
MATTAWAN -- An animal-rights group has asked the federal government to investigate the way Mattawan drug-testing company MPI Research treats the animals it uses.
Stop Animal Exploitation Now, or SAEN, said at a news conference Monday morning that it was contacted a month ago by an employee of MPI Research regarding allegations that MPI's treatment of animals used in drug testing violates the federal Animal Welfare Act.
``Some of the violations revealed by the whistleblower include inadequate veterinary care and inadequate observation of the animals,'' Michael Budkie, executive director of Milford, Ohio-based SAEN, said in a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's animal-care division.
Budkie refused to disclose the identity of the MPI employee because, he said, that person fears reprisals. He also would not say if the person was a current or former employee.
MPI Chairman and Chief Executive Officer William Parfet said the 1,500-employee company is ``vigorously'' inspected by both the USDA and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
``We take it seriously,'' Parfet said of the allegations. ``But we don't believe that there's been any wrongdoing.''
Parfet said MPI would cooperate fully with any inspection or investigation by regulators, but he said he didn't know if or when that would happen.
USDA spokesman Jim Rogers said the agency follows up all complaints. As of Monday afternoon, he said, the animal-care division had received SAEN's complaint but hadn't contacted MPI about it.
MPI is a 12-year-old company that conducts early-stage drug-development trials for pharmaceutical companies. Rogers said it is inspected once a year by the USDA and was investigated once in 2005. No violations were found in connection with that inquiry, he said.
Showing posts with label air canada animal testing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label air canada animal testing. Show all posts
Friday, October 19, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Air Canada Continues Trans-Atlantic Shipments of Dogs to Europe to Be Tortured In Animal Experimentation
What’s shocking here is the callousness by Air Canada, but also the stress that passengers witnessed and then displayed when learning where these dogs were going. Sad too is that they were wagging their tails, unknowingly heading to torture.
“Passengers on the flight found the sound of the dogs very distressing.
"All we could hear during the boarding and before the takeoff was barking, crying and whimpering," said one passenger in business class on Flight 870 who did not want to be identified.”
Article:
Beagles flown to labs for testing
Air Canada confirms shipments to Europe
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/
story.html?id=0010ae9f-d017-444f-8bb8-3b69dedf7528
MAX HARROLD, The Gazette
Published: Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Speeding down the runway in Dorval May 21, Air Canada passengers bound for Paris heard a lot more than just the jet's engines wailing.
Dogs were yelping in the cargo hold beneath them.
The estimated 70 to 100 healthy beagles were among many regular - and perfectly legal - trans-Atlantic shipments by Air Canada of dogs destined for medical experiments.
Passengers on the flight found the sound of the dogs very distressing.
"All we could hear during the boarding and before the takeoff was barking, crying and whimpering," said one passenger in business class on Flight 870 who did not want to be identified.
After landing in Paris, passengers saw three pallets with cages of two dogs each being unloaded from the Airbus 330 aircraft.
"Their tails were wagging through the cages," said one passenger, who also asked not to be identified.
"We were shocked to hear some flight attendants say this goes on regularly - dogs get shipped to Paris for experiments." Because Quebec's animalprotection law is vague and weakly enforced, the province provides a steady source of dogs for laboratories both here and abroad, animal rights activists said.
"Fifty per cent of all dogs used for medical research in Canada are used in Quebec," said Liz White, a director of the Animal Alliance of Canada, a national animal rights group.
Figures found on the website the Canadian Council on Animal Care, a government-funded organization that monitors animal research, show 5,610 dogs were "used" in Quebec in 2005.
That same year, 5,127 dogs were used in all the other provinces combined.
Despite a tough new provincial animal-welfare law enacted 2004, "Quebec is a frontier province for animal abusers," White said.
"There are very few bylaws, there is a high euthanasia rate by pet owners), and the claim rate for lost pets is very low." The Quebec atmosphere helps medical researchers trade in animals, she said.
Only four inspectors enforce Quebec's animal-welfare law, which allows for fines of $200 to $15,000 for repeat offenders. In Ontario, more than 200 inspectors enforce animal-welfare regulations.
Suzanne Lecomte, chief inspector with Anima-Quebec, a not-for-profit agency that applies the new law, said the "law is vague. It says simply you cannot compromise the safety and welfare of the animal." Linda Robertson, director of the Monteregie SPCA, said beagles are often used in research because they are particularly docile.
"You can do with a beagle whatever you want," she said.
"It's not going to bite you." The breed can be tailor-made to develop certain cancers, she added.
Pierre Barnoti, executive director of the SPCA in Montreal, said his group has been aware of the air shipments for years.
"Our investigators have checked out the dogs' health and they're fine," Barnoti said.
"These are not puppy mill dogs," he said.
Claude Morin, president of Air Canada Cargo, confirmed the existence of animal shipments for medical research.
"It's completely legal," Morin said. "The animals are treated perfectly (en route).We don't really ask too many questions about where they're going.
Clients don't have to tell us anything." Air Canada spokesperson Isabelle Arthur said a 1998 ruling by the Canadian Transportation Agency forbids the airline from refusing to ship animals simply because of their purpose. The ruling was made after Air Canada refused to carry monkeys intended for vivisection.
But Jadrino Huot, a spokesperson for the CTA, said the ruling was made to force Air Canada to apply its own policies and that the airline was entirely within its rights to change its policies.
"Air travel is a deregulated industry," he said. "They set their own policies." One Air Canada flight attendant, who asked not to be identi- fied, said the dog shipments have been kept "hush, hush." "It's a business," she said.
"They shouldn't be doing this."
“Passengers on the flight found the sound of the dogs very distressing.
"All we could hear during the boarding and before the takeoff was barking, crying and whimpering," said one passenger in business class on Flight 870 who did not want to be identified.”
Article:
Beagles flown to labs for testing
Air Canada confirms shipments to Europe
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/
story.html?id=0010ae9f-d017-444f-8bb8-3b69dedf7528
MAX HARROLD, The Gazette
Published: Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Speeding down the runway in Dorval May 21, Air Canada passengers bound for Paris heard a lot more than just the jet's engines wailing.
Dogs were yelping in the cargo hold beneath them.
The estimated 70 to 100 healthy beagles were among many regular - and perfectly legal - trans-Atlantic shipments by Air Canada of dogs destined for medical experiments.
Passengers on the flight found the sound of the dogs very distressing.
"All we could hear during the boarding and before the takeoff was barking, crying and whimpering," said one passenger in business class on Flight 870 who did not want to be identified.
After landing in Paris, passengers saw three pallets with cages of two dogs each being unloaded from the Airbus 330 aircraft.
"Their tails were wagging through the cages," said one passenger, who also asked not to be identified.
"We were shocked to hear some flight attendants say this goes on regularly - dogs get shipped to Paris for experiments." Because Quebec's animalprotection law is vague and weakly enforced, the province provides a steady source of dogs for laboratories both here and abroad, animal rights activists said.
"Fifty per cent of all dogs used for medical research in Canada are used in Quebec," said Liz White, a director of the Animal Alliance of Canada, a national animal rights group.
Figures found on the website the Canadian Council on Animal Care, a government-funded organization that monitors animal research, show 5,610 dogs were "used" in Quebec in 2005.
That same year, 5,127 dogs were used in all the other provinces combined.
Despite a tough new provincial animal-welfare law enacted 2004, "Quebec is a frontier province for animal abusers," White said.
"There are very few bylaws, there is a high euthanasia rate by pet owners), and the claim rate for lost pets is very low." The Quebec atmosphere helps medical researchers trade in animals, she said.
Only four inspectors enforce Quebec's animal-welfare law, which allows for fines of $200 to $15,000 for repeat offenders. In Ontario, more than 200 inspectors enforce animal-welfare regulations.
Suzanne Lecomte, chief inspector with Anima-Quebec, a not-for-profit agency that applies the new law, said the "law is vague. It says simply you cannot compromise the safety and welfare of the animal." Linda Robertson, director of the Monteregie SPCA, said beagles are often used in research because they are particularly docile.
"You can do with a beagle whatever you want," she said.
"It's not going to bite you." The breed can be tailor-made to develop certain cancers, she added.
Pierre Barnoti, executive director of the SPCA in Montreal, said his group has been aware of the air shipments for years.
"Our investigators have checked out the dogs' health and they're fine," Barnoti said.
"These are not puppy mill dogs," he said.
Claude Morin, president of Air Canada Cargo, confirmed the existence of animal shipments for medical research.
"It's completely legal," Morin said. "The animals are treated perfectly (en route).We don't really ask too many questions about where they're going.
Clients don't have to tell us anything." Air Canada spokesperson Isabelle Arthur said a 1998 ruling by the Canadian Transportation Agency forbids the airline from refusing to ship animals simply because of their purpose. The ruling was made after Air Canada refused to carry monkeys intended for vivisection.
But Jadrino Huot, a spokesperson for the CTA, said the ruling was made to force Air Canada to apply its own policies and that the airline was entirely within its rights to change its policies.
"Air travel is a deregulated industry," he said. "They set their own policies." One Air Canada flight attendant, who asked not to be identi- fied, said the dog shipments have been kept "hush, hush." "It's a business," she said.
"They shouldn't be doing this."
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