Group Seeks Transparency in Company's Use of Animals in Laboratories
For
Immediate Release:
April
26, 2012
Contact:
Kristin
Richards 202-483-7382
Abbott Park, Ill. — Holding signs that read, "Abbott: Stop Cruel Animal Tests," members of PETA, an Abbott Laboratories stockholder, will gather outside Abbott Laboratories' headquarters as shareholders arrive for the company's annual meeting on Friday. Inside the meeting, a PETA representative will speak in support of the group's shareholder resolution, which calls on the company to issue an animal report disclosing its efforts to ensure proper animal care both in-house and at contract laboratories, specifics on the ways in which animals are used, and its plans to reduce and phase out animal testing wherever possible:
Date: Friday, April 27
Time: 8:30 a.m.
Place: Abbott Laboratories, 100 Abbott Park Rd., Abbott Park
"Abbott Laboratories already discloses very specific details about its environmental efforts—PETA is simply seeking the same transparency regarding its use of animals in painful experiments," says Jessica Sandler, director of PETA's Regulatory Testing Division. "Shareholders have a right to know what Abbott Laboratories is doing to prevent animal suffering and to promote modern, effective, and humane non-animal research methods."
As PETA notes in its resolution, the Food and Drug Administration has stated that 92 percent of drugs deemed safe and effective when tested on animals fail in human clinical trials—and half of the remaining 8 percent are later relabeled or withdrawn because of unanticipated, severe adverse effects. Abbott's animal welfare policy states that it is committed to reducing the use of animals in these ineffective tests, but the company currently does not disclose any specifics regarding its efforts to incorporate non-animal testing methods.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.