Dear Sir/Madam,
I am concerned about the welfare of animals used in the development of Bristol Myer Squibb
pharmaceutical products. I understand BMS contracts
Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS).
I respectfully ask you to join the global list of former customers, suppliers, and financiers who
severed ties with HLS after learning about the
laboratory's habitual falsification of data and animal cruelty.
HLS kills an average 500 animals each day for experiments "only reliable 5-25% of the time," one HLS
record contends. Documentation from six
investigations has exposed HLS for multiple breaches of the U.S. Animal Welfare Act, the arrest of
workers on animal cruelty charges, more than
520 infringements of Good Laboratory Practice in England, and a $50,000 payoff to the U.S. Agriculture
Department for misstated records and
animal welfare violations.
As recently as late 2005, two former HLS employees from the Beagle Unit left their jobs distressed over
the animal suffering they witnessed daily
for 12 months. According to their tape-recorded testimonial, animals are inadequately anesthetized
before invasive procedures, such as painful
extraction of bone marrow from the chest bone.
Careless workers transfer blood into the wrong tubes. "One license holder would go in and out about five
times with the same needle, not hitting
the vein," the one-time employee maintains. "I saw co-workers grab [dogs] by the scruff, shout and swear
at them, swing them by the scruff and
slap them."
I've personally viewed substantiated accounts of HLS technicians who kill dogs by flooding their lungs
with toxic materials meant for the animals'
stomachs. In one investigative video clip, a technician repeatedly punches a screaming 4-month-old
beagle in the face. During a supposedly
post-mortem dissection, another tech slices into the chest of a convulsing monkey.
You likely find deliberate animal abuse as unconscionable as I do. I urge Bristol Myer Squibb to issue a
candid statement that conveys its refusal to
do business with Huntingdon Life Sciences.
Thank you for your valuable time and consideration,
YOUR FULL NAME
ADDRESS, CITY, STATE
COUNTRY
