Macaque Monkey Boiled To Death Inside an Everett, WA Research Facility of SNBL: As Usual, Laws Prevent Group From Being Held Legally Accountable

Very disturbing story. What this once again proves, is that any type of laboratory can do whatever it wants to any animal and it’s considered science. However, if an individual outside of a lab did these kind of acts, they’d be held under cruelty charges. See the hypocrisy here?

As stated below,

"According to RCW 16.52.205, a person can be guilty of animal cruelty in the first degree if they cause "undue suffering" or "unnecessary pain, injury, or death on an animal." However, the law also states when animal death and suffering is connected "with any properly conducted scientific experiments" it’s legal."

Article:

Do Animal Cruelty Laws Apply In Boiled Monkey Case?

http://www.kirotv.com/news/15216083/detail.html

Chris Halsne

KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Investigative Reporter

EVERETT, Wash. -- Calls for action continue to pour in following a KIRO Team 7 Investigation into the scalding death of a monkey inside an Everett research facility.

We discovered that a cleaning crew at SNBL left a healthy female macaque monkey in her cage, killing it by running it through a steaming hot rack washer.

The US Department of Agriculture tells KIRO that it is looking into possible Animal Welfare Act violation, but other groups are telling Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne they want criminal prosecution as well.

The National Humane Society of the United States and a Washington state-based animal rights group called Pasado's Safe Haven tell Halsne they think jail time is warranted for SNBL workers connected to the death of that monkey.

But KIRO Team 7 Investigators have discovered there are limits to Washington's felony animal cruelty statute that might make that a tough-to-win prosecution.

“There is absolutely no reason to be doing this to animals!” says Susan Michaels, who helped push through Washington's felony animal cruelty law.

She says it’s sad to say, but she’s not sure it will stop anyone from legally boiling another monkey to death at any research lab.

According to RCW 16.52.205, a person can be guilty of animal cruelty in the first degree if they cause "undue suffering" or "unnecessary pain, injury, or death on an animal." However, the law also states when animal death and suffering is connected "with any properly conducted scientific experiments" it’s legal.

Michaels tells KIRO Team 7 Investigators, “I don't even know how to put into words the kind of reaction I have, except to know that I am so grateful to KIRO that you got behind the scenes for something like this. Because according to our state law, it OK for those who experiment on animals, for them to do whatever they want to do them and there's nothing in our animal cruelty laws to stop it.”

KIRO Team 7 Investigators spoke with several attorneys representing animal rights groups who say they'd like to see prosecution anyway, arguing that the boiled monkey was "at" the lab, but not part of any experiment.

Our hidden camera expose found other problems at SNBL that might alert prosecutors as well. In an exclusive interview with us, former animal care manager Joanie McCully reported to federal inspectors animal handlers spraying acid on monkeys and intentionally dropping them on their heads.

“If the monkeys aren't cooperative, they shut them up, then they drop them on their floor on their head and spin the cage. You can see that's going on by all the dents in the floor.”

Paul Nofsinger is another former SNBL animal caretaker. He watched our investigation, thinking “I was shocked and appalled and at the same time. I thought finally!”

Nofsinger says a 2006 U.S. Department of Agriculture report, citing SNBL for poor recordkeeping, really struck a nerve. He says SNBL managers asked him repeatedly to "fill-in" animal care logbooks and documents.

“How do you get it done? You write it that it was fed or it was clean when it really wasn't. It was very common, common and sickening and nothing we could do about it if we wanted to keep our jobs,” Nofsinger said.

Primate injuries and deaths inside labs are no surprise to Jill Lute and her staff. She oversees the Folsom City, Calif. Zoo and Animal Sanctuary, where they rescue research primates from certain death, while educating the public on the importance of "enrichment" programs for captive monkeys.

Lute told us “Even though they might have to be in a research study and ultimately lose their life because of it, they should still have the decency to respect and care about them and do everything in their power to make sure the quality of life is good. They (SNBL workers) are being paid to be there to take care of those animals. They should take it very seriously.”

Lute gave names to these two research lab rescues - Wallace and Darwin.

That's something employees of SNBL say is forbidden inside here. Monkeys are only to be called by their drug-study ID numbers , so employees don't get too attached.

SNBL refuses to conduct an on-camera interview with KIRO Team 7 Investigators, but in an e-mail says it has been told that federal inspectors aren't going to issue the company a violation for the rack-washer death.

However, a spokesperson for the USDA tells Halsne there is an active and ongoing investigation.

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."