Undercover investigation at Covance - A lesson for us all

For eleven months, an undercover investigator for PETA worked at a primate laboratory in the US owned by Covance. They managed to secretly record abuse and torture of monkeys. Watch the video.

For more details see: http://www.covancecruelty.com/

Oxford University, the Government, the pharmaceutical industry and their apologists in the media use their considerable funds to continuously disseminate false information, which will ensure that the public believe that animals in research laboratories are afforded the utmost care and attention. It seems barely credible that the industry has withstood the evidence of numerous, highly publicised exposes conducted by undercover investigators, yet with all the resources and influence available to the opposition, it hardly comes as a surprise. Despite the fact that "the truth is out there", we in the animal rights movement are the ones painted as unfeeling, amoral monsters, while the real monsters get a pat on the back.

Historically, there is always a reluctance to accept that the institutions, governments and military of any given nation are acting immorally, even if the evidence suggests otherwise. When an activity is sanctioned by the status quo, it becomes - as a general rule - acceptable; the public are provided with the minimum of facts to suit the purpose, accept that it is for the good of the whole, while its opponents are marginalised.

The encouraging fact, however, is that the truth eventually becomes so unavoidable, that changes have to be forced - we can look at any number of examples in history and see that this is inevitable. The question is, how many more animals have to suffer unspeakable torment before those in power are made to be accountable for this cruelty?

All this begs the question: how many journalists who cover animal rights stories actually take the time to look at footage from undercover investigations? How many government members backing the Oxford project, how many university officials, potential building contractors or funders of Oxford University have actually looked inside the walls of laboratories? If they have witnessed the sort of suffering endured by sentient creatures and accepted it without question, what does that say about their ability to feel compassion, or about their suitability for responsible positions, in which they are meant to make judgements about the interests of the people they represent? It seems clear that compassion is not high on the agenda when profit is the guiding principle.

Those with this contemptuous and cavalier attitude to life would presumably be unmoved by the disclosures of a recent undercover investigation by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) at a Covance laboratory in the US, which graphically illustrates what goes on inside animal research laboratories the world over. It is yet another piece of damning evidence, which shows that all the footage we have seen thus far taken by undercover investigators does not show isolated incidents, but rather scenes that are enacted over and over and over again, whether at Huntingdon Life Sciences, Cambridge University, or Covance laboratories, etc. If the Oxford project is allowed to go ahead unchallenged, then this is the fate that awaits the animals that will end up in the University's 'prize' development.

The Covance footage shows primates screaming in terror as technicians and vivisectors do their worst, driving tubes into the animals' nostrils and down their throats, pumping them full of experimental drugs; it shows them driven insane by their forced isolation and confinement in tiny metal cages, from which they witness the torture of other primates at the hands of their jailers; it shows them subjected to verbal and physical abuse as they fight for their lives, as they are shackled and forced into draw tubes, convulsing at the bottom of their cages and dying without being given basic veterinary attention to necrotic tissue, and infected wounds. They are subjected to this torment every day until they die. If reading this isn't enough to convince you, then click on the link and see for yourselves. And then ask yourselves: do you want to be one of those passively accepting the fate to which the animals at Oxford will be doomed - the fate that awaits millions of sentient creatures in laboratories all over the world?

Those that defend the use of animals in research will tell you all this is necessary for the 'greater good'; they will lie, deceive and manipulate to protect their investments and their profits. Which is exactly what happened in the case of the investigation that was conducted by Thames Valley Police into allegations of cruelty by a leading animal researcher at Oxford University, who denied his 'asset' veterinary treatment and refused to allow her to be put out of her misery. Whatever happened to the prosecution that should have followed? Remember also the fate of the 'Oxford Two' who were forced to endure 15 years of torture? The sort of torture you will witness in the PETA undercover investigation, 15 years of unimaginable horror!

What the pro-vivisectionists don't tell you is that all the animals that have died and continue to die to line their pockets, have died in vain. That results from experiments on non-humans don't extrapolate accurately to humans. If that were the case, cures for cancer, epidemics, mental disease etc would have been found a long time ago and we would be living in Utopia.

At SPEAK we defy anyone to view the footage and not to come to the conclusion that those who abuse animals must be stopped and that those who condone it are as culpable as those who wield the knife. It doesn't take courage to be a bully, or to back a winner if it means it will line your pocket; it DOES take courage to be principled, to do what is right, even if it flies in the face of popular opinion. We believe that the tide is turning in favour of the anti-vivisectionists and that this is the reason for the criminalisation of those courageous enough to fight a system which permits the legalised brutal torture of weak, defenceless, sentient creatures. All of us at SPEAK are proud to stand up and be counted among those fighting for a society in which humans and non-humans can live a life free from pain and suffering. What makes us different from those at Oxford University, the Government and Pharmaceutical companies backing the Oxford Laboratory is that they have everything to lose and we have everything to gain. In the end, Profit and Power cannot crush an ideal. An ideal is untouchable, is given life by those who fight for it. And fight for it we shall. If Oxford University attempt to start rebuilding work, we WILL be there to stop them.