Animal Research Industry

The best way to understand how the vivisection industry works is to start with the animals themselves. First, there isn't a species of nonhuman animal experimenters won't exploit. Dogs, mice, rats, cats, fruit flies, zebra fish, macaques, baboons, chimpanzees, horses, pigs, chickens, bees, etc., are all up for grabs. Second, animals used in experimentation are supplied to laboratories by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-licensed Class A and/or Class B dealers. Class A dealers sell "purpose-bred" animals, born into this world only to be experimented on and then killed. Class B dealers supply "random source" animals purchased at auctions, "adopted" from unsuspecting individuals who placed "free to a good home" ads in their local papers and/or are stolen from people's backyards and outside of stores while their human companions are inside. Finally, these animals are offered for sale to experimenters via word of mouth and in publications like Lab Animal magazine. Also advertised in this publication are the cages, miniature guillotines (used to chop off the heads of live rats), and other sadistic devices used by the vivisection industry.

Animals bred and procured for use in experimentation can end up in any one of the thousands of laboratories (owned and operated by the makers of personal care and household products, colleges and universities, drug and chemical manufacturers, state and federal regulatory agencies, etc) in the United States that conduct experiments on animals. Furthermore, there are as many different types of animal experiments as there are laboratories conducting them; animals are cloned, bred for their organs, addicted to drugs and alcohol, forced to inhale and/or ingest toxic substances, subjected to maternal deprivation experiments, purposely deafened with loud noises, made to suffer strokes, blinded, burned, stapled, given diabetes and cancer, and infected with horrifying viruses like Ebola. Most people are shocked to learn that such abuses, when "properly conducted" in the laboratory setting, are exempt from state anti-cruelty statutes.

While every laboratory that experiments on animals other than mice, rats, and birds is licensed and inspected by the USDA and expected to adhere to the minimal standards of care as set forth by the Animal Welfare Act (e.g., proper cage size, adequate food, water, and veterinary care, etc.), funding comes from a variety of sources: gifts and grants from private individuals and foundations, donations solicited from well-intentioned but uninformed members of the public, industry money, etc. Nonetheless, the largest provider of funds for animal experimentation is the federal government. Every year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) doles out hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in support of some of the most bizarre and sadistic animal experiments ever conceived. One animal experimenter at New York University (NYU) received $250,000 dollars from NIH to construct a crack pipe through which monkeys, sealed inside old refrigerators, were forced to smoke crack cocaine.

In support of those who directly profit from animal experimentation (animal dealers and shippers, laboratory-equipment makers, experimenters and the institutions that they work for, etc.) is the vivisection lobby. Working hand in hand with its supporters in industry, academia, and government, the animal experimentation lobby enjoys a self-serving steady flow of taxpayer dollars while fighting animal protection legislation at every turn. They even successfully opposed giving protection to mice, rats, and birds, claiming it would be too costly and burdensome.

The best way to tackle the vivisection industry is to demand that your alma mater stop experimenting on animals, buy those products that are cruelty-free, give only to those charities that do not experiment on animals and demand the immediate validation and implementation of humane, more effective, and readily available non-animal tests from the federal government (e.g. Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Transportation, etc.)

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