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Animal Cruelty Caught On Tape

A former animal technician at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Ore. has revealed shocking video footage of animal abuse that would make even the Grinch wince.

Some experts say the appalling video proves what animal rights groups have been saying about primate research facilities such as OHSU all along: that the primates are being chronically traumatized, and that the animals' complex needs for social contact are not being met by staff.

Some of the monkeys seen on the tape mutilate themselves regularly, causing deep wounds that are difficult to heal. The Federal Animal Welfare Act recommends housing these highly social animals in groups, but many remain solitary in cages. The monkeys seen in large groups in the video are also sitting in their own filth.

Whistleblower Matt Rossell states, "I witnessed firsthand how the OHSU operates above the laws of the Animal Welfare Act. Unskilled, poorly trained animal technicians, not scientists, are forced by the management to perform the research at a breakneck pace... so mistakes are common."

Rossell shot the video and brought it to the attention of the animal rights group In Defense of Animals (IDA), a California-based animal advocacy organization. "I'm coming forward to show you what OHSU doesn't want you to see. Primate research is ineffective and wasting your tax dollars," Rossell explains.

A waste because as primate veterinarian Dr. Sheri Speede insists, any research derived from the use of a stressed out primate is useless. Speede also notes that the public cannot see what they're paying for.

"The OHSU facility is closed to the public. In carefully orchestrated guided tours, members of the public see what OHSU public relations officials want you to see... People cannot imagine what these monkeys endure," Speede reports.

Oregon's former United States Department of Agriculture Inspector, Dr. Isis Johnson-Brown, also came forward to report on how the USDA is in collusion with the primate research centers to hide animal abuse from the public.

Brown says, "More than once, I was instructed by a supervisor to make a personal list of violations of the law, cut that list in half, and then cut that list in half again before writing up my inspection reports. The USDA inspection system is comprised of a 'good ol' boy' network that blatantly defies federal laws which, even if they were enforced, are too ineffectual to protect the animals."

A bill has been introduced in both the U.S. Senate and the House called the "ICCVAM Authorization Act," which would establish a committee that reviews alternatives to animal tests and recommends changes in testing procedures to the appropriate federal regulatory agencies.

Dr. Arthur Hall, Director of Animal Care at the OHSU facility, maintains that the animals are not stressed out, but well cared for and notes, "there's no secrets here."

Hall explains, "You see this at the zoo animals pacing, walking in circles. They do different things than animals born in the wild."

These whistleblowers are not the only ones concerned about animals at the research laboratory. In late May, 26 animal technicians from the OHSU signed a complaint to the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) against the laboratory.

By Zoy Avgerinos

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