Tribune/Debra Reid - Charlotte Carter of Reno protested animal research at the Charles River Lab outside John Ascuaga's Nugget on Thursday.
“We’re appalled that Charles River is receiving an award,” said Tinia Tavcar, of the Northern Nevada Animal Alliance. “We can’t believe they’re receiving an award for continuing to kill animals.”
On Thursday, Charles River Laboratories was listed as an honoree at the Governor’s Industry Appreciation Awards Dinner as an existing Nevada business that had expanded during 2007. In 2006, Charles River was given the event’s highest honor: Distinguished Business of the Year.
Charles River, a Massachusetts-based research company that conducts pharmaceutical testing, has a facility in Sparks that houses animals used in its work. News reports earlier this year detailed animal rights violations that took place at the lab for which Charles River was fined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“They just cooked 32 monkeys,” said Tavcar, citing another report of animal mistreatment as she stood in the chilly evening air with her sign outside the Nugget’s main entrance. “Where’s their award for that.
An Associated Press report from Sept. 8 cites a lawsuit filed by a former Charles River employee claiming 32 research monkeys were accidentally killed by overheating in May and that he was fired partly because he opposed “cruel and inhumane mistreatment” of animals there.
Guy Grimsley, 65, said in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Reno that he believes his age also had something to do with his firing after he was hired last year to work at In the AP report, Charles River spokesperson Amy Cianciaruso said she could not speak directly to Grimsley’s allegations but denied animals had intentionally been mistreated. She said the company’s first concern is the fair treatment of animals.
Tavcar said the only “fair treatment” the animals could receive from Charles River is for the company to let them go and start doing its testing in other ways.
“Why don’t we put more time, money and effort into alternative methods,” she said, citing tissue engineering, computer modeling and others. She said that in Europe there are more than three dozen validated methods for testing that do not involve animals. On its Web site, the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods details some of these methods: http://ecvam.jrc.it/.
Tavcar also said she was upset that Charles River was being recognized at an event labeled as being sponsored by the governor.
“Nevada is OK with this. How dare Nevada OK this,” she said. “Do we want to be known as the animal killer capital of the world?”
“Not only am I an animal lover,” Kim Rhodemyre of Reno said outside the Nugget on Thursday, “but I also find the fact that in this day and age we’re doing animal testing when more than 80 percent of the time it doesn’t come out accurately and we have to test on humans anyway.
“I’m also upset,” she added, “that the government is making all these cuts and is spending money to give an award to a company that tortures animals.”
There's a reason we're at the top of the food chain. Because we can.
It's funny to wonder how many protesters at the Nugget are the first to show for the Rib Cook off...why aren't they protesting John Ascuaga's cattle farm???
Regardless of what their eating preferences are now, I'd venture to guess that ALL of the protesters would not be here if not for the meat they all ate as children.
Vegetarianism is just a fad that's wayyyy past it's time.