One of the Largest Animal Research Facilities in the Country Will Open in Truckee Meadows near Reno, Nevada

An unfortunate act in a very beautiful part of the country. Sadly, this facility will be large.

As stated below, “The Reno Planning Commission approved Charles River Laboratories' new 450,000-square-foot [facility].

Article:

Animal testing lab's move to Reno spurs outcry over planning
policy

http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/NEWS10/710020337/1016/NEWS

SUSAN VOYLES RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL DUNN/RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL

Heather Singer, left, Kathy Parker and Florence Abel on Monday protest the nearly completed Charles River Laboratory on Maestro Drive at Longley Lane.

One of the largest animal research facilities in the country will open this fall in the heart of the Truckee Meadows, and the only planning approval required -- a special use permit -- did not go to the Reno City Council.

The Reno Planning Commission approved Charles River Laboratories' new 450,000-square-foot, preclinical research center at 6995 Longley Lane adjacent to residential property in February 2006.

Since no one filed an appeal, that stood as the final decision. The same thing occurred when a new minor league baseball stadium was approved in downtown Reno in August.
Councilwoman Jessica Sferrazza, who fought for a new regional animal control center, said projects of a certain size should trigger a City Council hearing. Sferrazza lives within a few miles of the research lab but didn't learn of it until last week.

"We're the elected body. I respect the planning commission for what they do," Sferrazza said. "But it should come up to the council for review."
Mayor Bob Cashell agreed.

"There are special occasions," he said. "It's something we should look at."
Councilwoman Sharon Zadra said there was more discussion about parking than animal testing when two neighborhood groups reviewed the project in January 2006. No one seemed to be alarmed about the project, which lies within her ward, she said, noting that the council can't favor some legal businesses over others.

"You can't make judgment calls," she said.

Reno lab
The Reno facility will be among the five largest labs in the country, said Greg Beattie, the center's executive director for operations. Charles River is a public company with headquarters in Wilmington, Mass.

The company is relocating from Dunn Circle in Sparks to Reno and will be phasing in employees to the new facility over the next six months.

Sparks city officials, health officials, company officials and animal rights advocates say the plant has operated in the Sparks industrial area without incident for 15 years. Beattie said the 6995 Longley Lane site was chosen because it is closer to where its employees live.

Beattie said the company will greatly reduce research involving macaque monkeys at the Reno facility. In Sparks, he said the monkeys made up the "vast majority" of its research.
He said that means most of the research in Reno will involve rodents and a small percentage of dogs and monkeys. He said the federal government requires nonrodent testing before new drugs can be released on the market.

Activists picket

Animal rights protesters have been at the Reno site in recent months.
"I'm totally against it because of the animal testing they do," said Tania Tavcar, who lives nearby. "Every day I drive by that place, I feel like I'm driving by a pet cemetery. I may move. But I'm going to stay here and fight for a while."

"I don't think people realize what's happening in the middle of town," said Florence Abel, 78, a resident of the Quail Manor Court senior complex, northwest of the building. "I don't think what they are doing is illegal, but it's immoral."

Beattie said research will continue to involve testing new drugs on animals to find any side effects. A new drug for HIV, for instance, would be tested to see whether it causes tumors or other side effects.

Initial testing to see whether the drug is effective against the HIV virus would be done elsewhere, Beattie said.

For the company to handle deadly substances, he said, the building would have to be rebuilt to higher standards. At other locations, Charles River has done preclinical testing for drugs to counter anthrax, nerve gas and the sometimes fatal Dengue virus, according to the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention.

The new Reno laboratory building is rated as a Biosafety Level 2 facility, the same rating given to hospitals.

Charles River purchased the former State Farm building on Longley Lane and has spent $107 million renovating it, city and county records show. Millions more have been spent on lab equipment.

Animal research will be done on the 50,000-square-foot second floor and a large chemical laboratory will be on the first floor, Beattie said.

Beattie said the Sparks center employs 400 people who will be transferred to Reno. And the Reno lab will to grow to 900 employees over the next several years. Half of the jobs require a college degree, he said.

'No environmental hazards'
The plant, he said, will not create any environmental hazards, and the building did not flood in either the 1997 or 2005 floods. Inside the plant, a pretreatment tank will dissolve acids from the laboratories before the waste enters the sewer system. A station is set up for city officials to monitor that, he said.

Beattie said the only thing coming out of the large vents on the rooftop will be air. He said the plant will have no incinerator, and carcasses are hauled away to approved sites, which he did not want to specify.

Records show the labs are built with one-hour fire safety walls and fire officials have lists of the chemicals used and amounts that will be on site.

Coral Amende, a founder for Reno Outreach for Animal Rights, contends the government doesn't have enough inspectors to oversee the laboratory, contending the U.S. Department of Agriculture has only 101 inspectors for 13,000 laboratories.

The facility is inspected by the USDA, the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Beattie said.

Beattie said inspectors from these agencies have been through the facility dozens of times and have reported only a few "housekeeping" items. He said the last inspection was about a month ago. The company prides itself on maintaining higher standards than the federal government requires, he said.

He also said the lab is monitored by an institutional animal care and use committee. It includes a local resident, but he declined to name that person.
John Hester, Reno community development director, said the city does not regulate the care of animals in the facility. That's up to the federal government.

He said it's up to the council to change the city's code to require special use permits for larger projects.

The council in 1995 gave the planning commission the final say on special use permits unless there's an appeal. The practice is the same in Sparks and has been since 2000.
Questions were raised about animal testing at a joint meeting of the southwest and south ward neighborhood advisory board on Jan. 5, 2006. Notices were sent to residents within 750 feet, and the company also sent a letter to the Quail Manor Court, a senior citizen housing project next door.

All of that, city officials said, goes beyond legal requirements.

Bob Fulkerson, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada executive director, said major projects that affect citizens should go before the city council.

The staff report reviewed by planning commissioners included a single mention of testing on animals on its fourth page.

Fulkerson said the city should consider requiring a summary statement of a project in common language "so people know what the heck is going on."

Pending cases

A case against Charles River Laboratories is pending before the New Mexico Supreme Court. The case was dismissed by a lower court that said its chimp facility was exempted from the state's animal cruelty law. The facility was included in an exception for the practice of veterinary medicine.

The criminal charges related to two chimpanzees that died overnight when only security guards were on duty. One was injured by other chimps and bled to death and the other didn't regain consciousness after being anesthetized for an exam.

Amende said researchers can find other ways to find cures without doing research on animals.

"Out of every 100 drugs tested, we get just one that is safe and effective," she said.

Beattie said testing on animals is required by the federal government before new drugs are allowed to be put on the market. "There's not a single medical advance for humans or animals that has been done without this kind of research."

Groups Gather to Remind World that Novartis Supports Animal Testing and the Cruel Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS)

Article:

Anti-vivisection demonstrators target Novartis

http://www.24heures.ch/pages/home/24_heures/english_corner/news/news_detail/(contenu)/139423

Activists accuse Novartis headquarters in Nyon of collaboration with animal-testing company

Fifteen activists demonstrated in front of the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis in Nyon on Monday afternoon denouncing animal-testing methods. Participants carrying placards saying “Animal Murderers” or “No to Vivisection” gathered for three hours. Although animal-testing is not conducted at the Novartis factory, the demonstrators accuse Novartis of collaborating with British company, Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), which they claim uses “cruel and doubtful” animal-testing methods.

The aim of the activists, who call themselves “Stop Huntingdon Animal cruelty”, is to force business partners to discontinue dealing with the British lab. “We have already managed to make them lose SFr90 million since 1999,” says one demonstrator.

According to Paul Herling, head of research for Novartis international, animal experimentation is a useful support for in-vitro methods. The pharmaceutical company says it regularly scrutinizes partner companies and established the Novartis Animal Welfare service two years ago to assess the treatment of animals during experimentation.

Sinclair Research Center Recent Animal Testing Facility to Be Found Guilty Of Committing Nearly 40 Violations of the Federal Animal Welfare Act

It’s interesting to note here that this was a lab that carried out animal testing for Iams (Proctor & Gamble) and for Menu Foods – the recall company. So, this should give you a hint on just how bad this place is. This includes the Iams product – Eukanuba. For more information on Iams and Eukanuba and animal testing this see http://www.iamscruelty.com/introduction.asp

Here is a brief description of what was found inside this torture chamber:

“Among the alleged violations found by Agriculture Department inspectors: failing to provide sheep with appropriate pain relief during surgery; inadequate training of employees for animal handling and care; failure to vaccinate research dogs and cats; and keeping animals in cages smaller than the legal limits.”

"The gravity of the violations alleged in this complaint is great," the report concluded.”

Also interesting to note is that “…Bouchard purchased Sinclair Research, formerly known as Reproductive and Toxicology Consultation Services, from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1994. Bouchard was a university employee before he started Sinclair Research.”

And…

“Sinclair Research, which has a site in Windham, Maine, is also a licensed dealer of research animals. According to the Agriculture Department, the company sold more than 6,500 animals for a combined revenue of at least $4.5 million from 2001 to 2004.”
So all in all, they were making a lot of money off of animal torture.

Article:

Mo. Animal Research Lab Agrees to Settle

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4656593.html

By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER Associated Press writer© 2007 The Associated Press
COLUMBIA, Mo. — A Callaway County animal research lab has agreed to pay a $33,000 civil penalty after investigators alleged the company committed nearly 40 violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture filed the complaint against Sinclair Research Center in October 2006, more than three years after animal rights activists targeted the lab in an undercover sting.

Among the alleged violations found by Agriculture Department inspectors: failing to provide sheep with appropriate pain relief during surgery; inadequate training of employees for animal handling and care; failure to vaccinate research dogs and cats; and keeping animals in cages smaller than the legal limits.

"The gravity of the violations alleged in this complaint is great," the report concluded.
The Agriculture Department also accused Sinclair Research of a "lack of good faith" for conducting research at a location not known to the federal agency.

The company had no previous animal welfare violations but had been issued a written warning for failing to submit an annual report.

In a Feb. 28 settlement, Sinclair Research agreed to pay the fine and to "cease and desist" from further violations of federal law.

"It was a business decision," said company owner Guy Bouchard. "We had to resolve it promptly."

The federal inspections that triggered the complaint came several months after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released a series of video recordings showing animals it said had been mistreated. The secret recordings were made by a PETA employee who had also been hired by the research lab.

The PETA investigation prompted two of the research lab's biggest customers to sever ties: pet-food-maker Iams and pet-food-supplier Menu Foods. Iams is owned by Procter & Gamble.
Menu Foods recently recalled more than 60 million cans and pouches of pet food nationwide after the deaths of at least 16 household pets due to suspected rat poison found in food.

Bouchard purchased Sinclair Research, formerly known as Reproductive and Toxicology Consultation Services, from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1994. Bouchard was a university employee before he started Sinclair Research.

The company was previously located in Columbia on university property. It has since moved to the town of Hatton, near Auxvasse in western Callaway County.

Sinclair Research, which has a site in Windham, Maine, is also a licensed dealer of research animals. According to the Agriculture Department, the company sold more than 6,500 animals for a combined revenue of at least $4.5 million from 2001 to 2004.