Animals24-7.org
February 2016
Image from PETA
Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! (SAEN) asks USDA-APHIS to fine Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories the maximum
Accusing the U.S. facilities of the Japanese-owned company Shin Nippon
Biomedical Laboratories of “fatal negligence” leading to the deaths of
monkeys for at least the fourth time in eight years, Stop Animal
Exploitation Now on January 27, 2016 asked the USDA Animal & Plant Health
Inspection Service to impose the maximum penalty of $10,000 per alleged
violation of the U.S. federal Animal Welfare Act.
Added SAEN on February 1, 2016, “A government source has confirmed that the
USDA has now opened an investigation into animal cruelty charges against the
SNBL research facility” in Everett, Washington, about an hour’s drive north
of Seattle.
Image from PETA
Died in restraint device
Elaborated SAEN, “A USDA inspection report from December 10, 2015 documents
the death of a macaque monkey while in a restraint device. According to the
report, the death was caused by insufficient personnel [apparently meaning
not enough staff present to keep the monkeys under adequate observation.]
This is not the first negligent death connected to SNBL,” SAEN emphasized.
“Twenty-five primates died during or just after shipping in 2013. And
another eight died at the SNBL facility in 2013.”
Thus, SAEN continued, “In approximately two years SNBL has been connected to
the negligent deaths of 34 primates,” not counting deaths occurring as a
deliberate part of experimental procedures.
Circa 100 monkey deaths since 2005
SAEN in 2012 released USDA reports documenting 40 monkey deaths at the SNBL
breeding location in Alice, Texas. In 2008 SAEN exposed the death of a
monkey who was accidentally scalded to death in a cage-washing machine at
the Everett site, and in 2007 released USDA inspection reports from 2005
that described incidents leading to the deaths of 20 marmosets in SNBL
custody within just three weeks.
Of all those incidents, and others leading to 133 alleged violations of the
Animal Welfare Act in 2003-2007, the scalding of the single monkey drew the
most critical attention.
How one macaque died
Summarized Wikipedia of allegations publicized by PETA, “In early November
of 2007, hidden camera footage revealed that a wire kennel with a healthy
female macaque monkey inside was put into a giant rack-washer. The
180-degree water, caustic foam and detergent killed the primate at some
point during the 20-minute cycle.
“Prior to that incident,” the Wikipedia summary continued, “a former animal
care supervisor claimed she was fired after alerting federal inspectors” to
previous alleged Animal Welfare Act infractions purportedly including
“carelessly spraying monkeys with acid [apparently a cage-cleaning solution]
and intentionally slamming cages on the floor.”
“An animal unfortunately died in an accident,” SNBL vice president of
operations Jim Klassen confirmed to Everett Herald writer Eric Fetters. “We,
of course, immediately called the U.S. Department of Agriculture and they
sent an inspector who investigated,” Klaassen said. “We wash 100,000 cages a
year and have never, ever had anything like this happen before. We just
don’t have accidental deaths here.”
Despite receiving national attention from SAEN and PETA, and extensive local
media notice, the monkey scalding did not bring USDA charges.
Tall trees and security fencing
Meanwhile, SNBL won a reduction of fines for previous Animal Welfare Act
violations, from $31,000 to $12,900, by pledging to make various
improvements in procedures and facilities.
Before the 2007 monkey scalding, the SNBL Everett facility had quietly
operated since 1999 from a 29-acre site almost in the shadow of the Boeing
aircraft assembly plant in Everett, “tucked behind tall trees and security
fencing,” Everett Herald writer Amy Nile reported in January 2014. “A Shinto
shrine stands outside, honoring animals used in research.”
The SNBL-Everett staff has gradually increased from 26 in 1999 to 260 as of
2014, Nile wrote. Other sources indicate that SNBL-Everett may at peak have
employed about 370 people.
Inside view
Inside the 200,000-square-foot SNBL building, Nile said, “The facility,
which currently houses 1,200 monkeys, has room for up to 4,000. That’s in
addition to hundreds of rabbits and dogs, and thousands of rodents.”
Although SNBL allowed Nile to tour “parts of the operation,” she wrote, “the
company would not allow photographs of its animals, most of its employees,
or images documenting conditions inside. The company’s security people also
resisted exterior photos of the buildings and parking lots. The sterile
facility has only a faint animal odor. The maze of long hallways,
reminiscent of a hospital, features pass-through ports for moving specimens
between secure areas.
Hot air rises and @#$% runs downhill
The rooms that house the test animals,” Nile was told, “are kept under
positive air pressure to reduce the risk of germs entering.”
The phrase “kept under positive air pressure” may mean only that the rooms
holding the animals are kept warmer than the hallways, so that air flows out
instead of in when a door is opened.
The listed Everett site capacity includes housing for 10,830 mice, 4,410
rats, and 624 rabbits.
Clients “under wraps”
“Though SNBL’s client list remains under wraps due to the controversy
surrounding animal testing,” Nile said, “it includes several major public
universities that conduct medical research, such as the University of
Washington. SNBL helps to develop biologic products, such as vaccines,
cancer medicines, or gene therapies that address major medical defects. The
Everett operation does not test the safety of consumer products such as
cosmetics or shampoo.”
The SNBL-Alice facility came under scrutiny in April 2012, recounted Steven
Alford of the Corpus Christi Caller Times, after SAEN “uncovered records
from the University of Washington that show two monkeys died [at SNBL-Alice]
from a form of tuberculosis in 2010 while another died of goat polio.”
“Emaciation, hypothermia, overheating”
SNBL-USA director of laboratory animal resources David Reim told Alford that
the dead monkeys were believed to have become ill before they were acquired
from a breeder in Indonesia.
“The animals’ causes of death included emaciation, hypothermia and
overheating,” wrote Nile.
SNBL-USA vice president Mark Crane told Nile, Nile paraphrased, that “Some
animals refused to eat and became emaciated because they were already sick.
Because not eating doesn’t warrant euthanasia, the animals were emaciated
when they died. The animals who died of hypothermia were being held in
outdoor cages with external heaters. Two pigtail monkeys had apparently
avoided the warmed area.”
Continued Nile, “Since the incident, Crane said, all cages have both indoor
and outdoor areas. Pigtail monkeys are now kept indoors when the temperature
drops, he said. The monkeys who died of overheating were chased when it was
hot outside. To prevent future deaths, the company no longer captures
monkeys when temperatures rise above 85 degrees.”
40,000 monkeys worldwide
Globally, SNBL reportedly holds more than 40,000 monkeys.
The Japanese parent firm, founded in 1957, is headquartered in Tokyo, with a
second office in Osaka and laboratories in Kagoshima and Wayakama. Breeding
centers in Ankor and Tian Hu, Cambodia supply monkeys to the Japanese
locations and three in the U.S.: those in Everett and Alice, and a third
laboratory occupying an entire city block in Baltimore.
“SNBL is the third-largest importer of primates in the U.S.,” according to
PETA, “purchasing nearly 3,000 monkeys every year from China, Cambodia,
Israel, and Indonesia—some snatched from their homes and families in the
wild—for use in experiments.”
“78% are caged alone”
In August 2011 PETA claimed a campaign victory when China Southern Airlines
“made the compassionate decision to cancel its plans to ship 80 monkeys from
China to the U.S.,” a PETA media release said, “where they were going to end
up in the hands of SNBL and Harlan Laboratories.”
Of the SNBL monkeys kept in the U.S., a PETA web page recounts, “A USDA
report from 2011 documented that 78% are caged alone—in violation of federal
law—unable to touch or interact in any way with other monkeys.”
Most of the SNBL monkeys appear to be housed outside the U.S., but
USDA-APHIS records confirm that SNBL has ranked among the top ten importers
of monkeys into the U.S. over the past decade, bringing in as many as 2,727
in 2010, and as few as 350 in 2006. The average appears to be circa 1,400.
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