Life Sciences Commons^™

The Animal Slave Trade: Brutality On The Road To Research

Close Up Reports

The HSUS is working on several fronts to stop the exploitation of our nation's pets. In January, we were instrumental in establishing a coalition to abolish pound seizure-the practice of relinquishing pound and shelter animals for research purposes. Consisting of 11 of the country's leading animal welfare organizations, The National Coalition to Protect Our Pets will be working with local groups to outlaw pound seizure on a state-by-state basis. HSUS investigators will continue to trace the road to research, and we'll be taking legal action against both dealers and research centers whenever necessary. In our effort tore- r duce the …

Cruel Cosmetic Testing Could Be Stopped Today If Consumers Demanded It!

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The HSUS is launching an all-out offensive to bring an end to the terror and torture endured by millions of animals used in product-safety tests for cosmetics. In recent years, pressure from the animal-welfare community has prompted cosmetic companies to begin developing more humane methods of testing their products. Despite what appears to be progress, findings of a new HSUS study indicate that non-animal alternatives for testing cosmetics may never be implemented on an industry-wide basis unless consumers take action now.

The Hsus Condemns Psychological Experimentation On Animals

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For almost a century, millions of cats, dogs, monkeys, and other laboratory animals have fallen victim to the misguided notion that by torturing animals we may someday find the golden key that unlocks the dark corners and passageways of human psychology. Heedless of any relevance the experiments may have to the human condition or of the differences between humans and other animals, experimental psychologists are exercising unbridled on animals the whole range of suffering, from emotional trauma, like that experienced by the doomed infant monkey, to outright physical torture. Animals have been blinded and returned to the wild to test …

Federal Government Assaults Animals On Wildlife Refuges

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The welfare of America's wildlife and refuges is being sold for economic gain and recreational pleasure to hunters, trappers, and commercial developers. To date, there are 414 refuges composed of over 86 million acres stretching from the Arctic to the Florida Keys and from Maine to American Samoa. Almost all of these refuges have been touched in some way by natural gas exploration, predator control, pesticides, and commercial farming, ranching, and lumber industries. Over one half of all refuges are open to either hunting or trapping...or both.

All laws and regulations concerning activities on wildlife refuges stipulate that there must …

Solving The Pet Overpopulation Problem

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Because of the short pregnancies and large litters of dogs and cats, one individual female with all her female offspring reproducing similarly can be the source of over 4,000 new lives within seven years. Some of these animals will find homes complete with laps to sit on and fireplaces to enjoy, but millions of other perfectly healthy dogs and cats won't be so lucky. The overabundance of these potential pets tends to cheapen the intrinsic value of each individual animal in the eyes of the general public. The swelling problem causes some people to use cruel methods of disposing of …

Ld50: A Cruel Waste Of Animals

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Imagine a test in which up to 100 animals are forced to consume a toxic substance in an amount high enough to kill half of them. Then imagine that the explicit purpose of the test is to kill those animals. Incredibly, such a test not only exists but each year also claims the lives of from two to four million animals.

The test is the lethal dose 50, or LD50 as it's commonly called. Its purpose is to measure the toxicity of a substance by determining how much of that substance will kill half of a group of some 60-100 …

Whaling Ban Threatened

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A handful of countries, serving only their own greedy self-interests at the expense of the world's few remaining great whales, are threatening to sabotage the only hope of survival left to these magnificent creatures. Japan, the U.S.S.R., Norway, and Peru have filed formal objections with the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to that body's landmark decision to ban commercial whaling as of 1986. Iceland, Brazil, and South Korea, the world's other whaling nations, may join this infamous quartet and add their own objections before the filing deadline in 1983. Unless animal-welfare proponents act decisively now, years of negotiation and scientific inquiry--and …

U.S. Declares War On Coyotes

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The coyote has long been perceived as a threat by ranchers who graze their sheep on U.S. public lands. At the ranchers' insistence, U.S. government employees are paid to shoot coyotes from helicopters and airplanes, ambush them in cruel steel-jaw leghold traps, and plant cyanide guns that explode in the coyotes' faces. The Humane Society of the United States is irrevocably opposed to the unabated, cruel, and unnecessary practice of killing animals in the name of "predator control." The resumed use of denning and the threat of reinstituting 1080 makes our--and your--actions even more urgent.

Is Your Pet Safe From Laboratory Experimentation?

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In the U.S., the path from public or private shelters to laboratories is treat too often by dogs and cats. In a few states, so-called "pound seizure" laws require shelters to turn over unclaimed or unwanted dogs and cats to researchers. In other states, shelters may voluntarily sell dogs and cats to "bunchers" who travel around a state or states, bunching animals together to resell to research facilities. Even in the handful of states that prohibit release of animals for research purposes, unscrupulous profit seekers can find animals and sell them for research across state lines.

Many scientists claim these …

Fight For Alternatives Gathers Momentum: Commitments To Help Lab Animals Are Extracted From Industry And Government

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The Humane Society of the United States wants to see an eventual end to all pain and suffering inflicted on animals in the laboratory. We are working hard to make this happen, and the "alternatives" concept is basic to our program. We want scientists to find alternative methods of testing and experimentation that do not involve the use of animals.

Roadside Zoos Are Not Zoos

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The HSUS was one of the first national animal welfare organizations to take a long, hard look at all zoos, including roadside menageries. During the last nine years, we have worked intensively, conducting zoo inspections, public education and awareness programs, and developing a working relationship with the professional zoological community as well as U.S. Government agencies charged with the welfare of animals.

Animals Are Suffering: Hsus Seeks To End Rabbit Blinding Tests

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The research industry has long held that the use of animals is the only "reliable" way we have of determining the safety of a cosmetic, drug, or household product. Over the years this belief has served to support scientists as they subjected animals to many tests. The American public has seen little of the massive animal suffering that has taken place in the research labs.

Today, a new debate is taking place. People from all walks of life are asking if all the suffering and death is worth it. Many research scientists have joined the ranks of those who are …

Homeless Cats And Dogs Are Suffering And Dying

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Last year more than 13 million homeless cats and dogs were euthanized at humane societies and municipal animal shelters. As a statistic, 13 million may be meaningless. But think of it another way. Think of the 13 million as individual animals with individual personalities--each with their own beating heart, each with their own wretched story of how they found their way to the animal shelter. Each one was an individual breathing creature whose life was ended because there was no home to go to.

Oil-Soaked Birds Saved: Hsus Participates In Historic Bird Rescue

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As the world watched the black tide of crude oil from the Amoco Cadiz devastate bird life along the French coast, HSUS staffer Guy Hodge was reporting to Congress about efforts to save oil-soaked birds in a recent Chesapeake Bay oil spill. A barge (ATC- 133) carrying nearly 500,000 gallons of crude had run aground south of the Maryland-Virginia border. Some of its cargo spilled into this North American waterfowl wintering area.

Together with HSUS cruelty investigator Phil Steward, Hodge had assisted in the most successful on-site bird rescue operation in history. One out of every three rescued birds was …

Struggle To Save Dolphins Continuing

Close Up Reports

The Humane Society of the United States has initiated a nationwide boycott of a tuna products until real progress is made in reducing the needless slaughter of porpoises in tuna nets.

In the Spring of 1976, HSUS first asked its members to refrain from buying tuna because of the high porpoise mortality and the tuna industry's unwillingness to adopt any research porpoise-saving procedures. Recently, HSUS Program Coordinator Patricia Forkan called for a nationwide boycott of tuna.