Undercover Investigation Documents Misery for Dogs, Cats, and Rabbits, please send one automatic message

UPDATE, 9/17
Thank you to Jennifer for this updated information.
All animals (253) from the research Center in NC have been rescued by shelters and rescue groups.
If you want to adopt, you can inquire with:

DC: 202-726-2556
Cateret Co. NC: 252-247-7744
Guilford Co. NC: 336-297-5020
NJ: 973-824-7080
Norfolk, VA: 757-622-3319
VA Beach: 757-427-0070

Please only call the shelters if you are willing to drive there and adopt. THANKS for your help everybody! We did it. Lucy

UPDATE, 9/15: NC lab halts work after PETA video, animals to be released need forever homes, please help if you are able

Thank you so much to Shannon and Jessica for this information, please see below for original articles about the investigation.

These animals need to be adopted from PLRS Lab in North Carolina, and the cats in particular are looking for forever homes. If you are able to open your home, please contact Cathy with Animal Welfare Institute Online , email address below, or if you are a nearby shelter who can take some of the animals:

From Cathy, AWIO:

She said the animals will actually be going to shelters first and won’t be directly adopted.

What she needs most right now is to be contacted by any shelters in NC or VA (or neighboring states) that would be willing to take some of the animals! Any shelters that are willing to help should call or email her:

http://www.awionline.org/ht/d/OrganizationDetails/i/2/pid/212

She also said if people are interested in adopting any of the animals (especially people in NC or VA), she needs them to email her this information at:

• Name
• Address
• Phone Number
• What animal(s) or types of animals they’re interested in adopting.

If she knows what areas people have people willing to adopt one of the animals, she may be able to get the shelters to take 1 or 2 more of them.
Once she has shelters to take all the animals she will send out emails to those who emailed her letting them know where to go.

http://abernacky.tumblr.com/post/1132056366/update-animals-need-homes-from-nc-lab-how-to-help

1. Please send automatic message HERE

2. Please sign petition HERE

3. Please call DA Monday and demand warrant so local sheriff Ed Web can go in and seize animals. Try this number to reach the DA: 252-331-4530, Nancy Lamb, Assistant DA.

From PETA

Please see pictures HERE

UPDATE (thank you, Shannon):
Email from Peta…

Please call DA Monday and demand warrant so local sheriff Ed Web can go in and seize animals. I have talked to Angel at local animal control that can house them temporarily until homes can be found.

Please try this number to reach the DA: 252-331-4530, Nancy Lamb Assistant DA.

If you’re giving the number to friends, please stress that we encourage polite and calm comments. I imagine they’re getting inundated with calls and they have so other important work to do as well.

Thanks again!

Chrissy Matthies, Executive Assistant to the Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Department
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510 / 757-842-6730

BACKGROUND
A nine-month PETA undercover investigation found that hundreds of dogs, cats, and rabbits were subjected to vicious and abusive handling, neglect, and miserable living conditions at Professional Laboratory and Research Services, Inc. (PLRS)—a Corapeake, North Carolina–based contract laboratory that tests animal-companion products such as flea and tick sprays and spot treatments on animals. Industry giants—including Bayer, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Novartis, Schering-Plough (now Merck), Sergeant’s, Wellmark, and Merial, the makers of Frontline flea and tick products—are among the corporations that have paid PLRS to force-feed experimental compounds to dogs and cats and smear chemicals onto the animals’ skin.

PETA’s investigation revealed that dogs, cats, and rabbits used by PLRS suffered from untreated illnesses, injuries, and burns and that many animals were covered in sores because they couldn’t escape the urine, bleach and water that pooled in the facility’s cages. Many animals at the facility frequently exhibited stress-induced abnormal behavior resulting from anxiety and boredom. Animals were often forced to sit in their own waste, and many were sprayed with bleach and other harsh chemicals when the cages that they were being kept in were cleaned while the animals were still in them. A PLRS supervisor said that the untreated sores were “just part of …life” at the facility.

Footage, warning: language

Vodpod videos no longer available.

PETA’s investigator also documented that PLRS employees kicked, threw, grabbed, dropped, and dragged dogs; roughly grabbed and lifted rabbits by their ears; violently threw and slammed cats into cages; and viciously cursed at animals, calling them names such as “asshole,” “bitch,” and “motherfucker.”

Animals at PLRS were used in cruel and painful tests. In one experiment that was conducted for a major corporation whose products are stocked on store shelves nationwide, a test chemical was applied to the necks of 57 cats. The cats exhibited severe adverse reactions that day, suffering seizures and bleeding from the nose and mouth. In spite of the extreme and obvious reactions, the cats were exposed to the chemical for a second time that very same day. Rabbits at PLRS were intentionally and repeatedly forced to “wear” a tightly wrapped capsule containing thousands of ticks and were then killed.

Please be a voice for the animals who are suffering at PLRS. Take a minute of your time today to urge the pharmaceutical companies that are conducting business with PLRS to permanently sever their ties with this testing laboratory.

Visit HERE to send an automatic message.  Putting your subject line and letter into your own words will help draw attention to your e-mail.

MESSAGE TEXT

I was deeply upset by a video that I just watched showing the horrible mistreatment of dogs, cats, and rabbits at Corapeake, North Carolina-based contract testing laboratory Professional Laboratory and Research Services, Inc. (PLRS), which your company has been known to do business with. A recent PETA investigation revealed that animals at PLRS are kicked, dragged, viciously cursed at, and violently handled. They also languish in squalid conditions, and veterinary care at the facility is essentially non-existent.

I know you will agree, after watching this disturbing footage, that your company’s reputation will suffer if you don’t immediately end your association with PLRS. Now that you know what really goes on behind PLRS’ closed doors, I hope that you will do the right thing and pledge not to use PLRS ever again. Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

EXTENDED INFORMATION FROM PETA HERE

RELATED:

• North Utah Valley Animal Shelter sells animals for vivisection
• Dying to Learn, Exposing the Supply and Use of Dogs and Cats in Higher Education : http://www.dyingtolearn.org/
• animaLearn : http://www.animalearn.org
• American Anti-Vivisection Society : http://www.aavs.org
• The Science Bank, Alternatives to Animal Use in Education : http://nstasciencesupplyguide.com/company.php?id=45643&company=Animalearns+The+Science+Bank&term=

The Science Bank is the largest FREE library of humane science products in the U.S., offering over 450 innovative teaching tools for life science education. The Science Bank is operated by Animalearn, a program that assists educators in acquiring the latest technology for teaching anatomy, physiology, behavior, and ecology, without harming animals, themselves, or the Earth. The Science Bank loan program has been offering products to thousands of people for over a decade, and it is continually growing and expanding. Many of our CDs, DVDs, charts, and models are available in multiple quantities to outfit entire classrooms. Animalearn also provides humane education curricula and materials free of charge for educators and students. Animalearn’s The Science Bank can assist you in learning how to implement new teaching technology into your life science curriculum. Our inventory is continually growing, please contact us if you don’t see something that you need in our catalog.

• I DON’T WANT TO DISSECT

Know your rights, Student Choice Laws K-12, College, University, Veterinary and Medical School: http://www.animalearn.org/studentCenter.php

• Create a Student Choice Policy

http://www.animalearn.org/highSchoolStudentChoice.php

• Download Dissection Alternatives

http://www.animalearn.org/sbDownloads.php

• What you can do now – Take Action

http://www.dyingtolearn.org/takeaction.html

AltWeb, John Hopkins’ global clearinghouse for information on alternatives to animal testing