SHAC TO THE LAB AGAIN

Twelve years later, after injunctions, prison sentences and a massive campaign of state orchestrated vilification in the mainstream media, the SHAC story returns to it beginnings - the reason for it all: the senseless abuse of captive animals.

Previously unseen research papers, anonymously sent to the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign at the start of 2011, have shed new light on experiments carried out by Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS)

The research papers detail invasive experiments which took place on rats, mice, rabbits and rhesus monkeys at HLS’ Cambridgeshire and New Jersey laboratories between 2001 and 2010. Substances tested included petrol, grape seed extract, a toxic compound PCB, Botox, soybean fibre, and paraffin wax. There were also several duplicate tests for a food additive known as PVA and experiments to test a fragrance that occurs naturally in plants, which is used in cosmetics and perfumes. All the experiments involved lengthy distressing experiences for the animals before they were killed and dissected. In one test pregnant rats were forced to breathe vapourised petrol for up to six hours a day to examine the effects on their foetuses.

A summary of all 11 shocking documents can be found in ‘HLS Unmasked’, which can be downloaded at www.shac.net/HLS/HLS_Unmasked2011.pdf

All the substances tested had already been tested on animals before. All of them are already used by humans around the globe on a daily basis, except for the PCB which was banned in 1979 because of its known toxic effects. The majority of the substances tested, such as Botox, have nothing to do with ‘life saving research’ and are used mainly in cosmetic products.

HLS’s own documents point out the ludicrous nature of animal testing. One document involving the use of rats to test a naturally-occurring scent known as ‘coumarin’ concludes rather frankly that, “the rat is a very poor model for humans, and toxicity in the rat cannot be extrapolated to humans.” In another experiment, in which rats are force fed paraffin wax, the conclusion states that the results proved to be “of questionable relevance for human safety evaluation”. Of course none of this stops HLS from using rats as their main experimental animal.

Debbie Vincent of SHAC said, “these new research papers reveal, once again, the true horror and idiocy of this failing laboratory. When they are not getting exposed for gross misconduct or severe animal welfare breaches, they are thrust into the spotlight for testing bizarre and useless products on animals – products which we all use already on a daily basis. While cosmetic testing is supposedly banned in the UK, here we see products which are largely used in cosmetics still being tested on vast numbers of animals at HLS. We strongly condemn all experimentation on animals, but this blatant abuse of a gaping legal loophole regarding cosmetic testing is absolutely not acceptable. HLS must finally be made accountable for their cruel and unnecessary experiments which are taking place on a regular basis behind locked doors.”

Despite the massive state harassment the SHAC campaign is still going strong - find out more at www.shac.net