Bill Pending in Congress Would Restrict Flow of Lost and Stolen Pets to Laboratories
For Immediate Release:
December 8, 2011
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Ann Arbor, Mich. -- As part of its high-profile campaign to urge nationally ranked University of Michigan (U-M) to replace the cruel and archaic use of cats in a medical training course for flight nurses with modern human simulators, PETA has recently obtained internal documents from the school showing that cats who are abused and killed in the course are obtained from Michigan-based R&R Research—a notorious "Class B" animal dealer that sells lost, stolen, and surrendered pets to laboratories. R&R and other "random source" dealers take cats and dogs from animal shelters and obtain animals who may have been stolen from yards or picked up on the street. At least one animal was obtained unscrupulously—and illegally—through a "free to a good home" ad. Because of rampant illegal activity—including selling animals from undocumented sources and falsifying records—among the nation's eight active random source dealers, the Pet Safety and Protection Act of 2011 (H.R. 2256) was introduced in Congress by representatives Mike Doyle (PA-14) and Chris Smith (NJ-4) to prohibit Class B dealers from selling animals to laboratories.
"The University of Michigan refuses to modernize its medical training program and shamelessly supports the illicit trade in stolen pets," says PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "The Pet Safety and Protection Act of 2011 would provide greater safety for companion animals and their families and put individuals who prey on vulnerable cats and dogs out of commission."
Since 2007, R&R has violated federal law at least nine times by illegally obtaining cats and dogs to sell for use in experiments. In 2009, a senior administrator at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommended that the company be stripped of its federal license to sell animals, which has yet to happen. PETA is now requesting that the USDA take this action immediately as federal law requires that a license be revoked after only three violations. Five of the nation's eight active random source animal dealers, including R&R, are currently under federal investigation.
During the U-M labs, cats obtained from R&R have hard plastic tubes repeatedly forced down their delicate windpipes, which is painful and puts the animals at risk for serious injuries. Most of the cats are then killed. These labs have continued even though simulators better prepare trainees to treat human patients, are already available on U-M's campus, and are endorsed as replacements for animals in this training by the Air & Surface Transport Nurses Association, the national organization representing flight nurses.
More than 100,000 people—including Michigan natives Iggy Pop and Lily Tomlin—have called on U-M to replace these animal labs with simulators. U-M students have led protests on campus, the student assembly has passed a resolution urging the school to end these animal laboratories, and the student newspaper editorial board has written in favor of the effort.
For more information, please visit PETA's blog.