Shareholder Wachovia Dumps Huntington

Due to government suppression of activists associated with HLS protests, some source links may no longer work.

THIS ALERT IS CLOSED. It is archived for research purposes or to use as a letter-writing example.

UPDATE: Wachovia Bails On HLS/LSRI!
11/20/07: Wachovia sells all its shares HLS/LSRI, a contract research lab cited for animal cruelty in 7 investigations. Undercover footage reveals HLS techs who kill dogs when they flood their lungs with toxins meant for stomachs. In one clip, a technician punches a screaming 4-month-old beagle's face. During a presumed post-mortem dissection, a tech slice into the chest of a convulsing monkey. Routine blunders. This is HLS.

HLS Dropout News
1. UNIPHARMA DUMPS HLS
9/10/07, from closehls@closehls.net: Yet another company has communicated that they will no longer be doing business with Huntingdon. With more and more customers no longer doing business, it's only a matter of time until HLS is closed for good. With an upsurge of demonstrations after two major tours, there's no stopping activists on the warpath to shut them down for good!

"We at Unipharma, s.a. didn't know about HLS a year ago. We'd like you to know that we or our collaborators have no intention of dealing with HLS now or in the future. Additionally Unipharma, s.a. condemns firmly the treatment that some firms and people could carry on with animals."

2. FOUR SHAREHOLDERS SELL OUT + MORE EXPOSED
from closehls.net/current/shareholders: In early July, Dresdner/Allianz sold all their HLS shares, and four more institutional shareholders sold all shares in Huntingdon after campaign pressure. LaGrange Capital, Deutsche Bank, Fairfield Greenwich Associates, and Robeco all caved but it's not over yet. We've found four more. Wachovia (since sold), AXA, BNP Paribas, and Merrill Lynch are exposed for trading shares in death. They've already seen protests in Europe. No hiding in the U.S. either!

INFO ABOUT HLS & CAMPAIGNS TO CLOSE THE LAB

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Dear Sir/Madam,

I write to express my concern about your firm's 92,600 shares in LSRI (Life Science Research - Huntingdon Life Sciences). As a shareholder in LSRI, Wachovia supplies a financial lifeline to a research laboratory that kills an average 500 animals each day for experiments "only reliable 5-25% of the time," one record contends.

Documentation from six investigations has exposed Huntingdon Life Sciences (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.

I respectfully ask you to join the global list of customers, suppliers, and financiers that severed ties with HLS after learning about the laboratory's habitual falsification of data and animal cruelty.

As recently as late 2005, two former HLS employees from the Beagle Unit left their jobs distressed over the animal suffering 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 viewed investigative footage of HLS technicians who kill dogs by flooding their lungs with toxic materials meant for the animals' stomachs. In one 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.

I am haunted by the verifiable cruelty inside this laboratory. That is why I have taken the time to bring these disturbing images to your attention. Many labs now fulfill research criterion with sophisticated non-animal methods that (unlike animal testing) yield data applicable to human health and safety. HLS, on the other hand, abuses animals for invalid and redundant experiments.

You likely find deliberate animal cruelty as unconscionable as I do. I urge Wachovia to divest its shares in LSRI and refuse to support Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Thank you for your valuable time and consideration,

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