THE CATALOGUE OF CRUELTY THAT IS HUNTINGDON
LIFE SCIENCES
The following examples of cruelty and
abuse are taken from the diaries of Michele Rokke,
who was told on her first day of work at the New Jersey premises of Huntingdon
Life Sciences (HLS) that 'no animal ever leaves here [HLS] alive'.
Note:-
(i)When there is reference
to animals being 'sacrificed', this refers to the animal(s) being killed.
(ii)'Obbed', 'Obbing' or '
9/22/96 Sunday HLS
In room 906, Colgate Palmolive study 95-3278, I told Dilip
two of the females have ear- tags that have the numbers chewed off. He showed
me their USDA numbers are on a chart on the clipboard in each room. He told me
to check the tattoo in the dog's ear and match it with the chart. The dog we
were checking, number 1555 was all wriggly and excited about being out on the
floor with two people looking at her and was jumping all around. Dilip hit her in the face and checked the tattoo.
Irene and Brian were each drawing blood from dogs in the hall. I watched Irene
stick the needle in the dog's neck and jab and fish around repeatedly -
sticking the dog about eight times. She withdrew the needle and repeated the
procedure. After five more jabs she asked Brian if he wanted to switch dogs.
Brian was having the same problem with the dog he was trying to draw blood
from.
In room 916 - study 3309, the dogs are very hyper. They act like they've never been
out of the cage before. Their nails are very long and need to be trimmed.
In room 917 dog #1034's ear is infected where the ear-tag was put on. It's
oozing green pus and blood and is covered with big scabs that partially obscure
the ear-tag. Dog #1062 is emaciated. His ribs are clearly visible as is his
backbone.
In the computer room, Bob from Rodent toxicology was telling Kevin about the
rats in his study. Bob said most of the rats can no longer use their back legs
because the test material makes their blood so thick it doesn't reach the
extremities. He said they lose use of their back legs, then they urinate blood and then they die. Their kidneys shut down as
they cannot handle it.
Kevin said he was told that the blood would start to collect in the joints
because it was thick and it would probably cause a lot of dislocations. Kevin
said they called Terry, the vet, to look at one of the dogs in 3318 after
dosing. He was lying with his head up against his food bowl on his back gasping
for air. They requested euthanasia and Terry adamantly said no she had one like
that before that recovered. Kevin questioned if it had been THIS bad. The dog
was left in that condition. Bob asked if he was pissing blood yet - that's what
happens to all of theirs right before they die.
In room 921 dog number 3693 caught her ear tag on the feeder. I heard her
crying and screaming. When I got to her cage I saw part of her ear-tag was
caught in the shelf that holds the food bowl.
Kathy asked me to help her capture an escaped primate in room 956. She said she
had tried to catch him and had gotten very frustrated so she thought she better
ask for help before she hurt him [on purpose]. I held a squeegee to keep him
from running away and Kathy slipped the catchpole around his waist. I was
surprised when she cinched it up tight - I thought she would cut him clean
through with the pressure. The primate was so afraid he urinated.
She walked him to his cage with that around his waist and as he entered the
cage he grabbed hold of the bars and wouldn't let go. She pulled and yanked on
the catchpole.
The cages are supposed to be changed every two weeks. The cages in room 917 are
very dirty. There is a heavy slimy brown coating on a lot of the doors and
throughout each cage (on the walls etc.) Since these dogs are not actively in a
study they receive substandard ministration and care.
Henry and I cleaned part of 904 together as I was hosing cages I saw him pick a
dog up off the floor by his front leg and toss him in a cage. Henry took one of
three beagles out of the exercise cage and when he tried to close the cage door
one of the dogs tried to get out. He repeatedly slammed the cage door on the
dog's head (a total of four slams) before finally getting the door closed.
Perhaps one time could be considered an accident but I watched him deliberately
slam the door over and over again as if he were trying to teach the dog a
lesson about rushing out of the cage.
In room 906, study 3278 the Colgate study, dog number 2554 is very thin and
unkempt looking. She's very wild and hyper when she's being taken from her
cage. Today I saw one of the nails on her hind foot was bleeding from the base
of the nail. Her nails are very long and need to be trimmed.
In room 453, study 3321, the three pigs who were bled all squealed and hollered
violently throughout the procedure. Kevin feigned jabbing the uncapped used
syringe within inches of one pig's face because he was being so vocal and Kevin
was in a bad mood. In room 455 the pigs were calmer and scrambled back into
their cages themselves as soon as they were released.
All three pigs in this room had bruised and swollen necks from having blood
drawn. Before each stick Kevin would say 'eany meany mini mo ...' (one side
looked just as bad as the other).
Dog number 1193M had blood all over his cage when I went in to clean. He was
splattered with blood and the walls were smeared and streaked with it. The end
of his tail is raw and sore. About a quarter inch of the tail is bare and raw.
Kevin went into room 455 with Dilip to collect blood
samples from the pigs.
Normally there are four people to collect blood, three to hold and one to
bleed. I wondered how they would manage it with just the two of them. I heard a
lot of clanging around and squealing and when I looked through the window I saw
Dilip holding the pig and Kevin collecting the blood.
Kevin came out of the room to get a new syringe and vial.
When they got the next pig out I heard a lot of squealing and banging around,
it continued for some time. I heard Kevin swearing and then he came out of the
room and asked if I could help them with this pig. He told me to put the dog I
was holding on the floor and I think he got a new syringe. After the blood was
drawn and the pig was in his cage, Dilip noticed he
[the pig] was bleeding from his side. He gasped and said it was very bad.
He applied pressure to it and when Kevin re-entered to bleed the next pig Dilip told him about the injury. Kevin didn't blink an eye
and said it was because the pig flipped over onto the needle when he was
struggling.
I held the dogs from groups three and four from study 3316, rooms 454 and 456,
while Kathy dosed them. Dilip held groups one and two
while Kevin dosed them. The dogs are being dosed with test material 'alt946',
the method is oral gavage (a tube is forced into the
animal's stomach via the mouth and a substance is forced in with a syringe),
the sponsor is Alteon, and the study is listed as 'Alteon 1 mo dog gavage.'
Kathy had me bring the dogs to her in the hallway and place them on a
three-tiered rolling cart. She asked if I had done this before. I said no and
she showed me how to grasp the dog’s throat area placing my thumb and
forefinger on either side of his oesophagus. She told
me I had to apply pressure so I could feel if the tube went down the right way.
She told me I had to let her know if I could feel the tube or not.
If I couldn't feel it the tube it went in the lungs and not the stomach. She shoved
the tubes down the dogs' throats quickly and forced the amber- coloured test liquid in quickly. One of the two females in
group three from room 454 has a lump in her throat I could feel distinctly
before the tube went down. When Kathy put the tube in I could feel it go as far
as the lump and then stop.
She kept jamming the tube down, ramming it against the lump in the dog's
throat. I told her it was hitting a lump and that's why it wasn't going down.
Kathy kept forcing it and finally it went in. When it did, the dog yelped in
pain. Kathy mimicked the dog's cry and told me to get the next dog. Kathy made
several comments about Kevin dosing faster and turned it into a big joke, who could get it done faster. Several of the dogs gagged and
coughed as I carried them back to their cages.
Everyday I work, someone comments on how cute these puppies are in study 3325.
Stephanie and Lynn have both said, 'It's hard to get anything else done,
they're so cute I just want to play with them all the time.' I never know what
to say in response to this because usually the other things they have to get
done involve causing pain to other dogs, whom, apparently they consider less
cute.
In study 96-3322, Nick and Kevin were bleeding dogs in the hallway outside of
room 920 when I went into clean. I asked if I could go in to clean and Kevin
told me I could do anything I wanted to in that room. I could clean, I could
shoot them, I could do what ever I wanted. I asked if
the dogs had given them a hard time with what they had to do. Nick said they
had been very bad and Kevin agreed.
He said they had tried to bite them. Then Nick said if I go in and see any dogs
walking funny and not able to hold their heads up not to worry - it was because
Kevin had to hold them down and keep them in line. Kevin said he had to
clothesline one of them at one point. I went in to clean and the first dog I
picked up was 1264, a female extra.
She is extremely thin and when I opened the cage door she had to drag herself
to the door. When I picked her up and put her in the exercise cage she didn't
move at all and her back-end collapsed under her. I put in the other female
extra and 1264 just huddled in the corner and didn't play. The other female
extra seemed very quiet, too, but not as much as 1264. I went and told Kevin.
When he saw me he said, 'A dog's bleeding all over right?' I said 'No, but 1264
is having trouble walking.'
He came into the room. While he held the other extra, he tossed 1264 into the
back corner of the cage several times. Each time she hobbled forward toward the
open door. He said she was fine and left the room. I put the dog on the floor
to walk and she could not walk normally.
When I went into the surgery suite,
Jennifer and Mahsa had already started practicing on
1067. Jennifer cut into the artery and blood sprayed all over her face. Al, the
supervisor, immediately tried to sponge off Jennifer's face - she said loudly
'Don't worry about me! Attend to the dog - do I have the vessel clamped off or
not?'
After Jennifer had the catheter in the vein, she pushed a long metal tube,
called a trocar, up under the dog's skin starting
from the incision she had made on her inner leg along her side and eventually
forced it out through a small cut she had made near her shoulder. As she was
doing this, the dog started coughing and gagging and Jennifer yelled, 'She's
waking up.'
Al held the dog's mouth shut around the tube and turned the gas up. It took
several minutes for 1067 to reach a surgical level of anaesthesia
again and, in fact, I'm not sure if she ever did. I was told the dog's CO2 rate
shown on the monitor should be between 40 and 50 and the heart rate should be
around 10-15. When they're awake, Irene said the heart rate's around 50. When I
looked at the monitor when 1067 woke up it was in the 40's and her CO2 rate was
between 10 and 20.
Throughout the rest of the surgery her CO2 level stayed in the 30's and her
heart rate stayed in the 20's. When Irene pushed the metal tube under the skin
of the male dog his CO2 rate dropped dramatically from 43 to the teens and his
heart rate shot up from 14 to the 30's. I pointed it out to Irene who called
for Al. He re-inflated the cuff on the tube and turned the flow of anaesthesia up.
It took several minutes to ascertain whether there was a leak in the system or
what. Al eventually decided
I saw a necropsy being done in the room across from 906. When I looked through
the door I saw a beagle soaked in blood partially skinned. A man was using a
circular saw or drill to cut through the dog's skull. The skin on the dog's
face and head was completely peeled off.
Brian told me about a former employee who was always high at work. He took a
rat rack to cage washing, ready to be run through the automatic cage washer.
Marilyn wheeled it down to Terry's office to show her - the rack still had rats
on one side of it. He said it happens sometimes, and rats aren't too pretty
after they've been run through the cage washer.
I cleaned room 918. I went to transfer the first group four dogs to the
exercise cage and noticed she was twitching. She seemed disoriented and acted
as if she couldn't see. Every few seconds her head would jerk violently to the
side. I put her in the exercise cage alone and went to tell Walter (the other
large animal supervisor). He looked at her and said 'It wasn't' good.'
In the exercise cage she was 'paddling' her feet and walking into the cage door
as if it weren't there or she couldn't tell her feet to stop walking. She
continued to twitch and jerk. When I tried to look at her she pulled and jerked
away. Walt said later we would fill out a vet request but the problem was he
didn't think she (the vet) was here today. He said it wasn't good.
I put her back in her cage and she twitched and seized for about 20 more
minutes. When I put her in her cage her front feet went underneath her and she
fell on her face.
2700 has sores on her nose. I pointed it out to
3701M has sores on his head, 4701M has a sore on his tail that looks exactly
like the one 1193M in 921 has on his tail. It's bleeding enough to turn the end
of his tail red and the tip of it is raw and jagged. There are no clearly
defined borders as if it were a cut.
Held dogs from 3322 (Ligand Pharm.
-rooms 920 and 921) for ECG's.
The dogs are brought to a room that is supposed to be somewhat quiet and held
down on their right side on top of a rolling cart. If they struggle, the
technicians edge them closer to the edge of the cart so their legs and part of
their bodies are hanging off - I guess fear of falling keeps them from further
struggling. If they do continue to struggle at this point, they do fall.
It was my job to hold the dogs' legs apart and off the cart. One dog continued
to struggle causing the cart to roll away, leaving the dog suspended by his
legs in my hands. Metal alligator, that are often rusty, are pinched onto the
skin oil each leg, two on the chest and one on the dog's back.
The dogs definitely feel the pinch of the clips. Lisa told me she'd like to
develop a plastic clip that wouldn't hurt them so much. The clips are tight
enough to leave marks on the skin. If the clip won't stay on, they shave the
hair in that area.
I've seen some of dogs have bald patches after ECG's
that are nowhere near where the clips should be placed. I saw one of the rodent
tox people tattooing mice for study 2478, the Colgate
study. The mice are placed under a little glass jar hooked to C02 and their
tails are stretched out outside the jar. The person tattooing holds the base of
the tail down and starts tattooing.
I only watched a couple of mice being tattooed and saw them each squirming and
nailing in the jar trying to get away. They were each very still in the jar
before the tattooing started, but once the tattoo needle connected with their
flesh, they went crazy, obviously feeling pain.
I watched
He said she was still breathing so he did it again. He tried a third time and
still she was taking deep breaths. He said he would try another way - one that
would surely work. He went into the prep area and came back with a large
scissors. He cut open the little rat's stomach and snipped her backbone. Then
he jammed the scissors up into the thoracic cavity and snipped randomly
severing her aorta. He put down the bloody scissors and said she was dead now.
The portable exercise cages are particularly dangerous because you can't secure
one dog in half of the cage and safely transport them one at a time. When the
door opens both dogs are right at the edge and you have
to move quickly to grab one and shut the door before the other one jumps.
I think a lot of the mysterious limps recorded are from cage trauma, either
jumping or being dragged from the cage when a leg is trapped in a broken spot,
or having the door slammed on a leg. The last male in the high dosage red group
has blood on his tail again from chewing on it. When I looked, I saw the end of
his tail is raw and bleeding.
They dosed the dog while he was still in his cage. On
the schedule they're listed as 'hot dogs' because of the radioactive material.
The room is partially covered with coloured plastic.
The carts they use in the hall way are covered in plastic. Because of the
radioactive material, the room is a 'dry clean' room - it can't be cleaned with
water.
The pans under the dog's cage are scooped and wiped out each day. The smell in
the room is horrible. The air is so thick with the smell of faeces,
any time the door opens, it can be smelled all down
the hall. The technicians refer to it as the 'stinky room'.
It's a very small room, barely holding the four racks of cages. There are
between four-eight dogs on study. They are really miserable and bark
frantically if they see anyone through the window. Part of their cage is
obstructed by a metal plate, so they can only see out if they stand up and look
out.
Held dogs for blood in 3323. The dogs had pre-dose bloods taken, then they were dosed via oral gavage.
Jennifer and Lynn were dosing and I heard them baby talk and 'good boy' them to
get them to cooperate.
The scared, attention starved dogs wag their tails shyly and are anxious to
please but when the dosing begins, their tails stop wagging, they struggle and
cry. It made me sick to watch this emotional blackmail to get the dogs to
submit.
The dogs had blood samples drawn at 15 minutes post dose, 30 minutes post dose,
and 60 minutes post dose. The blood is taken from their necks.
By the time I started holding, the dogs had two samples taken and had been
jabbed countless times. Several of them would cry as soon as the tech started
pressing on their necks to find the vein. Some of them screamed uncontrollably,
and we had to stop trying on some of them and wait for them to calm down. The
human analogy for these episodes would be hysterics.
In between being grabbed from and shoved back in their cages and being jabbed
and re-jabbed with needles, Lynn and Jennifer were shoving the dosing tubes
down their throats. It was crazy and chaotic.
A woman came into the tech room to find out why there were no ECG or blood
pressure readings for male primate, number 6631, in study 3221. Kathy said,
'Because, he's very big and has big fangs and [the study director] said it was
ok to skip him this month because last time we dislocated his wrist.' The woman
(who works upstairs in the offices) said, 'Man, you guys are tough!' Kathy
shrugged and laughed and said, 'He did it himself.'
Lynn told a story about him [Kevin] finding out some thing right before they
went to bleed dogs and she said 'Oh great! I have to go bleed dogs with him now
and he'll probably throw the poor dogs against the wall.'
Kathy said this monkey had dropped dead right after dosing and another monkey
in the study wasn't doing well. She said she hadn't killed anything (via
improper dosing) for five years and didn't want to ruin her record.
She said, '[she] got suspended once for 3 days because she was holding off vein
on a little monkey's leg and the monkey went one way and she still had the leg
pointing straight up. Whoops! So, [she] had kind of killed that one because
they had to euthanase it.' She told me suspension
wasn't bad - she got to take a day here and a day there. She got off for her
sister's graduation, took a Friday off...
I asked what she would do with the time off this time and she said '[she]
wouldn't get anything for this because it was accidental - the other thing was
cruelty.' [Brian Crane told me later she should have been fired for that. The
real story was that they were all in a room bleeding, Kathy had a monkey's leg
held off and she was screwing around and did a little pirouette with it -
holding the monkey's leg in one hand and spinning under it like they were
dancing.
He said they all heard the bone snap and knew right away what had happened. She
had broken the primate's leg. When he said she should have been fired Irene
agreed with him.]
I helped set up for surgery. At the pre-surgery meeting Gene said he would put
one dog 'under' [anaesthesia] using just propofil on a syringe pump. Later, Brian told me Gene had
really had to fight Terry, the vet, to get approval to try this anaesthetic. He said she definitely DID NOT want Gene to
use it.
They sent me to get the first dog from the extra colony, dog number 11?? When I
got her from her cage at about
Everyone just looked at each other until, finally,
Gene said yes and looked at Jennifer, whom he had put in charge of prepping
things for surgery. She said she thought we would start earlier and that the
dogs are not fed until the afternoon so she didn't let anyone know to fast them.
(the way the schedule's been lately, the extra colony
is, to my knowledge, always obbed, fed and cleaned in
the morning.) Gene said it would be all right we would just have to watch them
closely in recovery and he motioned for the dog to be brought in.
Jennifer had trouble putting a catheter into the vein of dog number (the first
dog), This is put in to administer the 'cocktail',
prior to the isoflurane. Gene examined the tip of the
catheter after she tried to get it in and told her she bent the tip on the
dog's skin.
He told her she should make a little cut in the surface of the skin first, to
make getting the needle in easier. Jennifer's expression was of disbelief. She
said she didn't want to do that. Gene said he knew she didn't want to, but she
should try it and see how much easier it made it. Jennifer finally got the catheter in, without
slicing open the dog's skin, as Gene had suggested she do. She administered
about half of the dose. The dog was still sitting upright so she injected the
rest of the dose, then the dog was hooked up to the
portable anaesthesia machine.
Gene told me the dog was just hooked up to oxygen. When
Jennifer came in and upon hearing Gene express his
concern over the dog not breathing, said, 'Just turn the isoflurane
down. It's up to three.' Gene didn't know the dog was hooked up to gas and
exclaimed over why that was. Jennifer told him we always do it that way, keep them on gas until they're brought into the
surgical suite. Gene didn't think it was necessary,
the cocktail should be enough for prepping.
Another dog was hooked up to isoflurane in the
surgical suite, her legs tied and Jennifer made the incision for the catheter.
Brian and Gene were adjusting the gas flow when the dog started taking deep
breaths and moving around on the table. Jennifer had to lie on her to keep her
still. Both Brian and Gene were fiddling with dials and exchanging information
on the way they were used to doing things while the dog, with a one inch cut
through her skin and muscle struggled on the table.
Finally, Jennifer said 'The heck with sterility!' and turned a dial on the
machine and squeezed the bag into the dog's lungs. The dog, mercifully, quieted
down almost immediately. While Jennifer was doing this, Gene was yelling,
'Wait! Wait! Do you know what you're doing? What are you doing?' Jennifer said
she always did that. They had a disagreement over what she had done.
Obviously what Gene was doing was not getting the dog back under and what
Jennifer did, did put the dog back under. She re-
scrubbed and within a few minutes the dog wasn't breathing and her colour was poor. After several more minutes of adjustment,
and fiddling, and conversation, Gene re-intubated the
dog and upon checking the tube that was in her trachea originally, found that
only half of the cuff was inflated. Jennifer said she had checked them all
prior to surgery. This may be true, but, clearly, half of the cuff was not
inflated.
Jennifer finished implanting the catheter. This dog cried and howled as she
woke up and her vocalizations continued long after she was placed in the cold
metal cage. I worried about the dogs' well being, when I saw they were placed
directly on the cold metal floor grate of the cage immediately after they were extubated, still groggy from the anaesthetic.
I've read and been told by veterinarians that it's imperative the patient be
kept warm until fully recovered from anaesthetic. The
next dog operated on when through the same stormy recovery period, howling and
crying.
The third dog, a female was brought in. Jennifer looked at her and said, 'Oh, I
like this dog, she always likes to have her tummy rubbed. She's so sweet.' I
held the dog so Gene could catheterise her for the anaesthetic. He announced he would show us his technique.
He dug into her skin with the needle, cutting through her skin until she bled.
The dog cried and tried desperately to get away. I couldn't hold her still, she
was struggling so much. Jennifer ended up holding her while
The dog was deeply anaesthetised and she took a long
time to wake up. Gene said she was much, much deeper than necessary.
While waiting for her to wake up, Gene pulled hard on her whiskers. Getting no
response, he snapped his fingers loudly next to ear several times. As he was
doing that, Brian pinched her toes hard and she straightened her leg. Still she
wasn't getting up, so they continued pulling and tugging at her. Gene
periodically pulled at her whiskers and clapped his hands right next to her
ear.
In fact, he did this so often he looked like a senile old man, repeating the
same task over and over again because he forgot he had just done it. The
clapping was so loud and the pulling and pinching so extreme, I winced each
time they tried getting a response from her.
Brian told stories about previous studies. One was a study that a European
company ran for a product that was already on the market over there. He said
the test material made the dogs' mammary glands and prostates get swollen, hard
and blue. The dogs also lost a lot of hair.
He said it was just horrible, after dosing he went into ob and one of the dogs
was standing up one minute and fell over dead the next. The test material raised
their body temperatures really high. The company claimed it was
I asked Al if the dogs get analgesics. He said 'No, not unless the vet
recommends it and in this type of surgery it wasn't necessary.' Motioning to
the dogs shivering and howling on the cage floor, he said, 'What you're seeing
is just the recovery stage.' The dogs cried and whined in the cold cages still
out from the anaesthesia - awake, but not able to
stand yet.
I told him with the exception of one cat, I had never seen an animal have this
difficult of a time recovering from surgery at the vet's office - that they
never vocalize and cry like this. Al just shrugged and didn't say anymore about
it.
Brian laughed about Jennifer's first dog having brain damage after not
breathing for so long.
In 93-3093, monkey #6899 was trapped in front of the false back of the cage and
had no access to water.
In room 957, James was curious and friendly as always. A couple of the monkeys
will take a treat from my hand but most of them won't come near the front of
the cage when I'm near them. All of the monkeys are so sad.
They live isolated in tiny cages without any companionship or mental
stimulation. I think the reason James hangs on the front of his cage is because
he's 1onely and afraid. He doesn't belong in this cage in this laboratory and
he knows it.
Helped hold monkeys for pre-test bloods in 3334. The monkeys are forced to the
front of the squeeze cage and trapped there by the false back. The technicians
poke and pull whatever part of the animal they can reach without being bitten,
banging and slamming the cage, until eventually a leg is pulled out of the
cage.
Preferably, the leg is pulled through the feedhole but not always. Brian bled
one monkey as she hung in midair on the cage door, saying, 'We take what we can
get.'
As usual with blood samples, the technicians fish around inside the animal's
leg until they find a vein. Stephanie and Rachel tried countless times on each
monkey they bled. Both complaining about not being able to
find the vein. Irene and Brian had better luck and obtained their
samples a little easier but several times I heard Brian call the monkey he was
bleeding 'bitch' if she moved at all.
The edges of the feedhole are rough and jagged and all of the monkeys had deep
red marks, cuts and scratches on their thighs and stomachs from being forced
through and held tightly against the rough metal. As I held the small legs in
my hand I saw the fingerprints on the monkeys' hands and feet. Dilip told me each monkey has his or her own set of prints
just like a human. No two are alike.
I held the pigs for bloods until
I can't imagine how sore they must have been after being thrown on their backs
and bled so many times. The pigs who leave their cages
gladly for cleaning were not given the chance to jump out today. They were
dragged out.
At the night bleeding, the pigs were all sleeping and had to be dragged from
their cages. They were so exhausted and reluctant to be bled again they didn't
even stand up when the cage door was opened.
At the night bleeding, only Kevin, Dilip and I were
there to bleed the first pig. Kevin walked in to get the pig from his cage for
the sample. He grabbed a leg and threw the pig out of his cage - not pausing
for a second after opening the cage door before grabbing the sleeping pig.
The pig landed on his face and didn't have time to get up before Kevin threw
him in the trough for bleeding. I asked him sarcastically if it had been a long
day, he didn't answer - but that was ok because I had been referring to the
pigs when I asked.
I cleaned 3274. The dogs get so sick from the test material and vomit so often,
sometimes I don't even notice it until I realize it's not rinsing off the cage
floor as I clean.
Three of the dogs I held cried excessively when Kevin tried to get blood. They
whimpered and screamed and eventually even involuntarily snapped because of the
pain. When he finally repositioned the needle they quieted down slightly.
Several times Kevin had to fish around inside the dog to find the vein. This is
common in all of the bloods I've held for. The technicians insert the needle
and hope for the best. If they don't get blood they slide the needle in and
out, back and forth until they hit a vein.
One of the dogs was so terrified and struggled so much I couldn't begin to hold
him. Kevin called Dilip from the room he was cleaning
to hold him. Kevin told him 'Dilip! I want you to
break this dog!' They got the sample they wanted...
The dogs from 3328 were sac'ed
today. They had to be brought over from I-wing to the necropsy room. James
loaded four to eight dogs in an exercise cage and pulled them over to the main
building. The puppies waited in the hall with the dumpster full or bloody
garbage bags containing already dead dogs right next to them.
The table where the euthanasia is done was directly across from them. The smell
or formaldehyde was heavy in the air and by the end of the day, there was blood
all over the hallway.In room 957, my friendly little
monkey who hangs on the cage door, lets me stroke his hand and drinks water
droplets gently from the hose now paces nervously in his cage.
I wasn't even able to snap a picture of him because he was pacing so much. I
couldn't figure out what would change his personality so much in just a few
days. Later, I saw on the behaviour chart he had been
acclimated to the nasal-gastric tube the day before. Where
before I saw sad loneliness, now I see fear bordering on hysteria. A
realization that what was a bad situation for this gentle little monkey has now
become his worst nightmare.
Today I had to say goodbye to all the dogs in study 3274. They will be killed
this week - some of them on Christmas Eve.
I'm trying to think of something remarkable I could write about them one last
time. But, there's nothing too remarkable about being locked in a two-foot cage
for one full year - getting lonelier and crazier and sicker as the days drag
by.
I'm telling myself I'm glad for them. Glad they finally get the release death
will bring. What I really think is it's just not right. Not right they will die
without ever being loved.
Irene, Cesair, Lynn and I acclimated the primates in
3314 to the ECG board. They really struggle and panic at being strapped down.
This is so stressful on the primates I find it hard to believe any of the data
is usable.
The primates are so afraid they jump wildly around the cage when the technician
tries to catch them. They're trapped at the front of the cage by the false-back
and the technicians bang on the cage, holler and curse at them until the
primate ends up putting some part of their body against the front of the cage.
The techs grab whatever they can reach and pull - hair, skin, tail, finger,
toe... Whatever they can grab. Eventually the primate
is captured and with his or her arms locked securely behind his or her back,
carried through the air to the ECG board.
The ECG board is a sheet of plexiglass with holes cut
through it. The primate is strapped tightly to the board with long Velcro
strips holding his/her legs down and a leather-gloved technician holding his shoulders
down.
The techs place a couple or fingers over the primate's throat - if they
struggle, they cut off their air supply. Many of the monkeys try to turn their
heads to bite the technician's gloved hands and monkeys are heaved back into
their cages by techs.
Blood pressure cuffs are placed around the primate's thighs. Usually the cuffs
don't fit well and a Velcro strip has to be placed around it to hold it on.
Brian told me we really shouldn't use the Velcro strips. If the cuffs aren't
placed carefully, the Velcro on them pinch the skin and abrade it.
Metal clips that pinch so tightly they leave bruises and red sores are
connected to arms, legs, chest and back.
Cesair carried the primates like prisoners of war to
the ECG board and back to their cages. Several times (twice on video) he swung
them backwards through the air, then quickly forward, acting like he was really
going to throw them hard into their cages. When he did release them into the
cage he tossed them to the back so they couldn't turn back around.
Obbed 2484. The rats have nothing to do in their
barren cages but eat the poisoned food and sit on the cold metal wires.
When I was cleaning, I stopped to look at dog number 2550F, who was in the
exercise cage all alone. She was doubled over in the cage with her head pushed
up against the cage door. Her front paws were pressed tightly against the top
of her head and as I watched, she started pawing at her head.
I opened the cage door to see what was wrong with her and she almost tumbled
out of it because she was pressing forward so hard with the top of her head.
She managed to sit up a little, but her body went rigid and her eyes were
glassy and distant. Her tail was hanging rigidly straight down. Her head
started to bob and rock back and forth. She was having a seizure.
Normally this dog is quite hyper and active. Her tail wags and she always
follows me when I walk past her cage. When I spoke to her during the seizure
she didn't respond at all. It was as if I wasn't there.
Her body was stiff and her head continued to bob for about three to four
minutes. The whole seizure from start to finish lasted about five minutes.
Afterwards she seemed normal. I couldn't see anything different in her
personality or behaviour.
I found Kevin and told him about the seizure. He looked at the dog and said she
seemed fine. I asked him if I should add it to the daily obs
and fill out a vet request. He told me it wouldn't matter - she was getting sac'ed tomorrow anyway.
In study 3314, almost all of the primates have severe bruising on their legs
from being held against the rough feeder hole for bloods (photo). I heard
Rachel ask Stephanie if she had seen the way the monkeys looked after Nick bled
them. They both rolled their eyes and exclaimed over how rough Nick is with the
monkeys when he bleeds them.
Occasionally one or two of the technicians would repeat the 'war cry' as they
drew blood.
One primate was really struggling as he was carried to the table and restrained.
Justin held the monkey down, with his thumbs over the monkey's throat.
This is a restraining tactic I've seen several of the technicians use including
Justin, Dilip and Yimmer as
it helps control a struggling primate by restricting his or her air supply) and
the primate's arms pinned back. He leaned close to the monkey's face and yelled
'Stop it, before I bite your face!'
Several of the technicians, including Kathy, Irene, Brian and Justin had joked
throughout the week about how many monkeys would die as a result of
'lung-shots' - if the naso-gastric tube is improperly
placed in the animal's trachea and lung instead of their oesophagus
and stomach, the animal receives the test material in the lung and dies within
minutes.
Justin brought it up again during ECG's and went on
to tell me about having a 'platinum club' in the past. He said I should ask
Brian about it, he may still have the list. If you killed an animal you were in
the club. He said he had the most kills. He said he killed a dog once - 'It
just dropped over after dosing.' He said he broke a monkey's arm once and it
had to be euthanased.
After the primates are injected with ketaset, they are left in their cages unattended as it takes
affect. They literally drop to the cage floor as the anaesthetic
takes affect. No one has ever mentioned their safety when they
drop nor have I ever seen anyone try to prevent them from falling.
I saw several primates hanging onto the very top corner of their cage and fall
helplessly to the bottom when the drug took affect.
Brian propped several of the primates up over the edge of the cage while he did
the tb test. He walked away from monkey's several
times, leaving them in that position after that the test - half in and half out
of the cage.
The guillotine door was precariously lodged above them and could have fallen
down and injured the animals at any time. One sedated primate was left hanging
with her throat over the perch bar in her cage after being weighed and tb tested. Irene walked by and said, 'Who did that' and
unlocked the cage door. I thought she was going to move the primate to a safer
position, prone on her side as per SOP but she only removed the lock and
re-locked it on the cage.
No one was concerned that the monkey's air supply would be cut off. Another
primate flailed wildly as she recovered from anaesthesia.
She crawled toward me and grasped as whatever she could reach to steady
herself. Her eyelid was still bleeding from the tb
test. Primate 2073 was very freaked out about being strapped down for his ECG.
He tried to turn his head and bite at Yimmer's
leather gloved hands. Kevin came over and shook his finger in the restrained
primate's face and said in a loud obnoxious voice 'Don't you bite my friend.'
He grabbed the lotion bottle and quickly put lotion on all the contact points,
saying loudly 'Here, Here, Here.'
He started to put the lotion down and stopped himself. He put the open lotion
bottle into the primate's mouth and gave it a squeeze, leaving the bottle
upside down in the monkey's mouth as he walked away. Dilip
removed the bottle a couple of seconds later.
I checked the observation book for 96-3314 and saw that James has had decreased
activity and a hunched appearance for the last seven days. I went in to see him
at 1he end of the day. Room 958 had been bled and dosed shortly before I went
in.
He was sitting in an upright foetal position with his
head tucked down low. When he heard the door shut and all the other monkeys
shrieking, he showed his teeth in a submissive, fearful way. I've seen many of
the other primates do that, but never James.
He glanced at me when I knelt by the cage and then went back to staring at his
feet. He shifted slightly so he was closer to the feeder hole. I reached in and
stroked his back. He looked into my eyes and when he saw I could do nothing but
stare back at him, he closed his eyes and curled up again.
1/26/97 Sunday HLS
During the meeting in the tech room today Kathy announced that she had seen
injuries on every one of the monkeys in room 958 yesterday - from broken tails
to nearly- severed fingers, all caused from people handling them improperly
during tests and procedures.
She said she might not know everything but she had worked there a long time and
she thought she was pretty damn good at catching monkeys and when she tried to
offer advice to other people trying to catch monkeys, she didn't appreciate
getting attitude from them.
She said her attitude toward catching monkeys changed when she broke one of
their legs, and she knew some other people did when they saw tails lying on the
floor. Eleanor spoke up and affirmed that no one better be pulling on the
monkey's tails when they were trying to catch them because they do stretch and
stretch and will eventually just fall off. She asked Walter if he remembered
how gross that was the time they had to bleach all those.
Tonight I helped Brian, Yimmer, and Dilip with ECG's in room 958,
study 3314. The primates wince and jump when the metal alligator clips are
pinched onto their delicate skin and it's obvious by the way they jump that it
hurts if the clip isn't opened completely when removed. If any hair is pulled
with it they really jump and scream.
Brian pulled all the clips off fast, not taking any time to ease them off, and
told Dilip he was showing me how I was supposed to be
taking them off. The clips leave marks and bruises on their skin and sometimes
you can see where the clips go by where the marks are from the last time tl.1ey
had ECG's done.
Dilip was pointing out various cuts and abrasions on
the primates and trying to record them in the ob book. Brian chastised him for
that and waved away his concern. One of the primates in group five had such a
deep cut in between his toes, it looked like one of
his toes might fall off.
Some of the primates were bleeding from their mouths after being jammed against
the cage door. I saw one primate had a bloody hole in her mouth where a tooth
used to be.
I don't know if the dog jumped or if Henry slammed his leg in the cage door.
Either is a definite possibility since I've seen Henry on several occasions
slamming cage doors on dogs and grabbing them by the leg to lift them.
One of the group four rats has red lesions around his
eye. There was blood smeared in the corner of his cage. I obbed
it and told Brian about it. He said he didn't think 'it was a big deal'.
Dilip came into the tech room and told us one of the
extra primates had gotten his hand stuck in the cage flooring. Rachel asked if
he had tried lubing him. Dilip motioned with his
hands the size of the stuck hand was approximately the size of an orange and
the floor would need to be cut.
Rachel, Dilip and I went to the extra colony and on
the way to the stuck primate's cage, Rachel said, 'That one's stuck, too.' She
pointed to another female primate across the room. Her hand was stuck midway up
her forearm and her hand and forearm were swollen to twice their normal size.
When I looked at the primate Dilip told us about I
was amazed at what I saw. The primate was face down against the cage floor. Her
entire arm, up to her armpit, was trapped on the other side of the cage.
I expected her hand to be swollen, but her whole arm was swollen. It was at
least three times its normal size - it looked even bigger than her leg. The
skin on her hand was shiny from being stretched so tightly because of the
swelling.
Rachel and Dilip tried banging on the cages and
yelling as if that would encourage the monkeys to get their own arms out. The
monkeys screamed and shrieked in terror and pain, but obviously couldn't free
their arms. Rachel opened the cage doors and tried pulling and twisting on the
primate's arms. The monkeys continued to scream and cry.
Rachel gave each primate an injection of ketaset and
the cages were moved to the floor. Dilip got the bolt
cutters from the guard station.
The primate who was stuck up to her armpit was injected first. When she started
getting relaxed they tipped her cage over so she was hanging from her trapped
arm. I reached in and tried to support the weight of her body so the metal cage
wouldn't cut her arm.
Rachel told me to let go of her. Her arm was so swollen,
Dilip could hardly get the tip of the bolt cutters in
between the arm and the cage. Eventually they were able to cut apart the cage
and free her arm. The arm was so big they had to cut through two of the squares
of caging before there was a larger enough opening for the arm to squeeze
through.
Her arm was raw from the caging and bruises were already starting to appear. Dilip told me she probably been stuck since the night
before.
2/12/97 Wednesday HLS
I went to the necropsy room after surgery and watched Brian and Jim finish the
necropsy of one of the group four primates. The primate was split wide open in
a pool of blood. I could still see her heart beating.
Al brought in the next primate. He had given the primate an injection of Xyla-ject. He brought her in wrapped up like a baby - in a
garbage can liner, with just her head sticking out. They put her on the wet and
bloody necropsy table.
Brian picked up his razor knife and grabbed a chunk of hair on her upper arm
lifting the skin up. Then he began hacking at the arm. His razor was dull and
he took several swipes before removing a chunk of flesh the size of a lemon. I
was so shocked I couldn't even ask what he was doing - the primate was still
very much alive!
While Jim approached with sodium pentobarbital, Brian drummed his fingers on
the primate's mouth making noises. Jim injected the drug into the primate's
very exposed vein while Brian held it off. I asked if that was the way they
always did it. Brian told me 'Yeah, we're lazy.'
Eleanor put a butterfly in his arm and started the dose, via syringe pump.
Within just a few seconds the dog was yelping and screaming and frantically
trying to get out of the sling - I think his struggles were involuntary - he
was just freaking out from the test material.
He was biting and snapping. His muzzle and eyes turned bright red. His face
swelled up. His anal glands let loose. He urinated and defecated. His breathing
was rapid and shallow and then raspy. Shortly after the dose was administered -
over a two-minute period - the dog appeared to be in a stupor.
His eyes were glassy and his head went limp. After several minutes of this
comatose like behaviour he started to wag his tail
slightly. Eventually he was moved to the floor and deemed good enough to be
returned to his cage.
Al taught me how to bleed a rat via the retro-orbital sinus. A glass pipette is
broken and the smooth side is inserted into the animal's eye socket. The rat's
eyeball pressed completely into the socket as the pipette entered. He told me
to twist the glass tube and apply pressure at the same time.
After pushing the glass tube deep into the eye socket and twisting three times,
I felt something break and blood came rushing out of the pipette. Al told me to
tip the rat upside down and let the blood flow out. After the pipette is
removed blood fills the eye cavity and runs down the rat's face. Al put gauze
over the eye and applied pressure. A few minutes later he killed the rat by
cervical dislocation.
The animal I had to do this on was deeply anaesthetised
with isoflurane, but normally this procedure is done
on animals only lightly anaesthetised with Co2.
Usually animals have this done when they're 'on-test', often more than just
once, and they're not sac'ed after they have to
suffer with the pain.
2/20/97 Thursday HLS
When Brian tied the dog's catheters off after dosing, he yanked them so hard
the dogs' hind leg, where the catheter is attached to the inner muscle layer
with stitches, literally was jerked up and off the table. Irene admonished him
for pulling so hard and for pulling it out so far before tying it and dropping
it back in.
The cut and knotted tubing is contaminated by the tech's hands and put back
under the dog's skin. Once I saw a huge chunk of hair stuck to the tubing as it
was jammed back under the dog's skin. When Brian tied the dog's catheters off
after dosing, he yanked them so hard the dogs' hind leg, where the catheter is
attached to the inner muscle layer with stitches, literally was jerked up and
off the table.
Irene admonished him for pulling so hard and for pulling it out so far before
tying it and dropping it back in. The cut and knotted tubing is contaminated by
the tech's hands and put back under the dog's skin. Once I saw a huge chunk of
hair stuck to the tubing as it was jammed back under the dog's skin.
I watched Rachel, Stephanie and Lisa IV dose group eight dogs in study 3337.
There are eight dogs in group eight. They are brought in three at a time, and
then two, into an empty room and tied into slings. All four of the dog's legs
are strapped securely to the cart the sling is hung on.
A needle is inserted into one leg and the dose is administered with a syringe
pump for ten minutes. The dogs vocalize, salivate, turn red, bite at the cart
and eventually slump over - completely out of it.
In study 3323
She said there were like ten people holding him down. She told me just as
Rachel had, 'Someone must've done something to him
because he's really hard to dose and the dogs in this room are really good
about it.' Kevin tried holding the dog while
After a lot of rough struggling, they switched places. Lynn and I tried holding
him while Kevin dosed. Again there was a lot of struggling and eventually the
dog made Kevin mad and he grabbed the dog's face and twisted his head around
toward him. There is video of this and clearly Kevin lost his temper and used
far more force than was necessary just to get back at the scared dog.
I helped Kevin, Dilip, and Yimmer
with ECG's in 3314. The ECG's
are supposed to be done four hours after dosing, with only 5 minutes per ECG.
Kevin was all stressed out about the time factor and kept screaming 'We should
be able to do an ECG in three minutes! Come on! Faster!! Faster!!'
He kept telling Dilip to catch them faster. He kept
hollering out to strap them down faster and clip them faster. He was so hyper
and loud the primates were all upset and fought more than usual. While Kevin
was holding one primate - pinned to the ECG board, he bent down low, right in
the primate's face and screamed something about biting him in the face if he
didn't stop it and cursed at him (see video for verbatim).
After Kevin was done threatening the scared monkey Dilip
pointed out the primate's testicles had retracted way up into his stomach area.
They were not visible except for a slight bulge through his abdominal wall.
After we had done ECG's on several monkeys and Kevin
was getting louder and meaner with each minute, I finally asked him to please
calm down.
I told him he was stressing me out and making me very nervous. Earlier I had
mentioned having a calm atmosphere for the monkeys to get accurate test results
but that request had only succeeded in making Kevin louder and rougher with the
primates. I had to emphasize how nervous his behaviour
was making me several times and finally told him the louder he was and the more
overbearing he was, the slower I would go because he was just really stressing
me out and I couldn't take it.
After my 'threat' to go slower and slower he finally stopped yelling at us to
hurry. Our ECG's were only running a few minutes
behind - just like all the other times I've helped with them and there was no
reason for us to be so rushed and to scare the monkeys more than they already
are.
When we got to the group four monkeys Kevin switched with Dilip
and started catching monkeys while Dilip held. He
said he had to get us 'caught up' with the schedule and didn't give the monkeys
any chance to resist when he started catching. He would bang the false back of
the cage to the front of the cage quickly and very hard.
The primates were jammed in the small space in whatever position they landed
in. This is in total disregard or Eleanor's memo to go slow and talk gently to
them.
Later, Brian came in the prep room and asked me who had intubated
that dog. I told him and asked why. He said the tube was filled with blood and
he wasn't very happy about it. When I saw the tube I couldn't believe how much
bright red blood had filled the last three inches of it.
When she woke up in the cold room later, I felt sorry for her waking up with
incisions in her back and inner thigh, sores and cuts on her front legs from
the countless abo-cath punctures, and a sore throat
from improper intubation, connected to a foreign box
by a loud metal tube attached to and wrapped around her body, dressed in a
confining, uncomfortable jacket with a large foam collar around her neck.
The misery these animals have to endure is unthinkable. What they go through,
being relatively healthy and whole one minute and an hour or so later waking up
in a confusing world of pain.
Animals who have femoral catheters implanted at Huntingdon Life Sciences in
East Millstone receive no post surgical analgesics even though they exhibit
obvious signs of pain e.g., shivering, vocalization, abnormal breathing
patterns, excess salivation (even though they're routinely given atropine),
Splinting, tail between the legs, lethargic behaviour.
Cesair was trying to get a hold of one primate who Dilip was holding on the door. The primate struggled and
turned on Cesair who then slapped him saying 'He is a
bad monkey, he needs to be spanked.'
I helped Dilip, Kevin and Yimmer
bleed pigs. Kevin grabbed them by the leg and swung them out of their cages
through the air. Instead of carrying the pigs he sometimes holds their hind
legs and makes them walk on just their front legs. Sometimes he drags them
across the floor on their face.
The six pigs all screamed loudly when they were flipped upside down in the
bleeding trough and stuck with the needle. They have been having
pharmacokinetic bloods done and they had been bled several times over the last
day 'and a half.
Terry and Lynn X-rayed a dog from study 3327. I 'asked what was wrong and Terry
said sarcastically that's what I'm trying to find out. Terry read the x-ray and
said what a, sweet irony - it's a clean break in the exact same place in the
exact same leg that we need for the bone study. She and Lynn both laughed.
Terry wrapped the dog's leg in a metal splint.
Brian, Irene and I bled dogs in 3623. When Irene and I tried to bleed dog
number 2750 she struggled so much I couldn't begin to hold her still. She
yelped and cried whenever the needle got close to her neck.
Irene had Brian hold the puppy down when he came in and she tried to bleed her.
The dog W3S so afraid she urinated before Irene got enough blood. Brian's shirt
was soaked with urine and he was furious. He picked the dog up by the skin on
her back and by the collar and threw her roughly down oil the sling cart.
He tied her into the sling, pulling the ropes around her legs extremely taut in
his anger. He obtained the blood sample from her leg cursing at her the whole
time. A tour came by and peered in the window at Brian as he bled the dog.
Irene tried to tell him but he just ignored her.
James was all hunched over near the feeder hole when I went in to see him. He
reached out for me right away when I knelt in front of him, then he quickly
hunched over again. I don't know if he's sick and is uncomfortable in any other
position or if he's just miserable. He let me rub his back and stroke his head
for a while but he wouldn't take the treat I offered him.
I saw Rodney come in to get dog number 8211, she is extremely fearful arid
always hides face first in the back corner of her cage when the door is opened.
I usually have to stand on the rack of the cage below so I'm able to reach her
scruff to drag her forward.
When Rodney grabbed her he grabbed a handful of skin on her side and dragged
her forward sideways, even lifting her out of the cage by the skin on her side.
He's no taller than I am and it looked like whatever he could reach he grabbed.
I picked the rat up later in the day and saw she had a one to one and a half
inch open wound (the whole length of the surgery site) open down to past the
muscle layer. It's raw and bloody looking with pus apparent way down in the
opening. A piece of plastic tubing is visible with a couple of inches hanging
out of the wound.
A few hours after the bloods were done I noticed rat 4001's right eye was
protruding from her head and was so blood-filled and scabbed over it looked
black. The area is swollen and the eye is about twice the size of his other
eye. He sits at the back of his cage with his head tipped to the side, leaning
his sore eye into the side of the cage.
Irene told me 'That happens sometimes, quite often actually, but usually not
when Al does it.' She said because rats' eyes protrude, they dry out quickly.
She said the rat's eye would dry up and fall out soon and we'd probably see it
lying on the floor.
The dogs in study 3337 were killed yesterday and today. The hall was filled
with the smell of formaldehyde. I saw James - from necropsy, take a live puppy
into the necropsy room where four tables were being used. He plopped the dog on
a table right across from another table where a woman was using a big power saw
to cut up the head of a mutilated dead beagle.
Behind James, another man shoved the bloody remains of another puppy into a
garbage bag. I think they should euphonise the dogs
in a quiet room away from the sight of already mutilated dogs.
Rodney told me while he worked at his other job, he
sent his girlfriend a set of dog's eyes with a note that said 'I only have eyes
for YOU.' Then he told me he later sent her a dog's heart with a note that said
'My heart belongs to you.'
I watched a necropsy from the window. A puppy from 3335 was completely cut open
from neck to groin, his ribcage exposed. I saw the dog throw his head back and
howl.
I thought it was just a final muscle convulsion after euthanasia, but then I
saw the dog throw his head back writhing from side to side still vocalizing.
The last writhing head throw happened when the person doing the necropsy sliced
through the dog's leg muscles.
Irene told me they used to give the monkeys Ketaset
and then slice them open all across their chest and neck to find the vein so
they could exsanguinate them. She said they had to
start giving them something else because basically the monkeys were awake they
were just completely paralysed - they knew what was
going on they just couldn't move.
Cardio had practice rat surgeries today. Brian went to the table where Irene
was implanting a femoral catheter in a rat. He picked up a scissor in one hand
and one of the rat's legs in the other and said, 'I think I'll cut his foot
off.'
He started to close the scissors when Irene screamed, 'Brian! Don't you dare!' Brian laughed and said, 'You know I'd do it.' He
didn't drop the rat's leg. Irene said, 'I worry about you having children.'
Brian looked puzzled and asked her why.
Irene said again she really worried about him having children and said she
hears about people like him all the time. After that Brian dropped the rat's
leg and walked away saying 'It's just a rat. No matter what PETA wants us to
think, it's just a rat. It's not a dog or a goat or a boy...'.
Al came in to check on the surgeries and saw Brian cutting his rat's heart out.
Brian always cuts the rats wide open when he's done practicing and digs around
until he finds the heart. He cuts it out and puts it the operating table
several inches away from the rat. The heart continues to beat for several
minutes as Brian pokes and prods and it and the rat.
If anyone rolls their eyes or says anything about it Brian always says very proudl, 'I'll never have nightmares about putting a
still-alive rat in the freezer. I know they're dead when I get done with them -
this is the only way to really be sure.' Al gave Brian a half- hearted
admonishment and I said at least the rat still has four feet to alert Al, who
is higher up than Brian, about what Brian had intended to do earlier.
Brian said 'Oh! That's right! I was going to cut his foot off.' He picked up a
scissors in one hand and the rat's foot in the other and just before he could
close the scissor Al said 'Brian!!' and stopped him. Brian giggled like a bad
schoolboy caught chewing gum. Nothing else was ever said about it.
Rodney wrapped the rat in a paper towel saying he didn't like to look and put
her in a plastic bag. Then he pulled her head one way and her body the other.
He didn't spend more than a few seconds pulling at her. As he put the bag down
I asked if he knew if she was dead - how did he know for sure.
He nodded knowingly and said, 'She's dead.' About twenty minutes later I saw
the rat trying clumsily to crawl out of the plastic bag. I screamed for Rodney
to come and look at the rat he had killed - she was still alive. He left the
rat he was operating on open on the table and as he walked across the room
said, 'No, she can't be.'
Putting her back in the plastic bag he grabbed her head in one hand and one leg
in the other and pulled and twisted. Then he put some isoflurane
on a paper towel and dropped it in the bag before tying it shut. Again, he
didn't look for any vital signs before putting the rat down and assuming she
was dead.
I went in to pick up my check and asked Irene and
She said they never even record eye injuries from bleeding because they happen
all the time and the rats live. I asked Irene the day I discovered if the rat
shouldn't be euthanased and I asked Brian on Sunday
if we shouldn't euthanase him. They both said no like
it were a strange thing to ask about.
Theresa told me about the first time she went in to clean the pigs, the new
hairless pigs, just this week. She asked me if I'd seen them today, laughed and
told me they were all beat up, that she'd really killed them when she cleaned.
She said no one had told her they'd never been handled and she didn't know how
to clean the cages.
She said she didn't know you weren't supposed to let them out of their cages
and when she tried to catch them to get them back in they each freaked out and
had run blindly into walls and cages getting all scraped up and cut. She said
one has a swollen face and anther has a big cut on his face, the other one has
all kinds of scratches all over.
She said afterwards she told Rachel about it and Rachel took her in and showed
her how to work with them. I looked through the window at the pigs and even
from outside the room I could see the cuts on two of the little pigs and the
swelling on the darker one's face.
When I went in to see James today he stared into my eyes and then down at his
feet as I told him goodbye. Most of the monkeys in 3314, including James, will
be killed on Thursday and Friday this week. They're scheduled for all kinds of
blood work and ECG's as the study winds up and I told
him I may not be able to see him again.
When I told him this he came to the centre of the door and pressed his whole
face against the cage staring at me. I stroked his cheek and whispered goodbye
and as I stood up and he moved back to his foetal
position, it occurred to me, too late, that he was pressing his face forward
for a kiss.
The rat on the right side of the table was continually waking up and the anaesthesia adjusted as the rat was held down. While we
waited for a replacement pump and for
The rat was sitting upright on the table, his hind feet taped down his tail
swinging wildly as he tried to escape. His abdomen was cut wide open exposing
internal organs. Rodney continued to operate while
Gene says we'll use a primate from the extra colony for practice on Friday. He
told us 'There's a monkey Terry wants euthanased
because he's sick so we'll save him until Friday so we can hack him up a
little.'
I made myself go in and talk to James one last time. I didn't want to - I
walked by all the empty cages with their doors hanging open in the next room,
the former occupants now in bloody bags in the freezer down the hall. My little
friend looked at me and stretched out so I could rub his stomach one last time
and quickly slouched over into his foetal position
when I said good-bye.
Todd also talked to me about the dogs in study 3282 and what's in store for
them in a few weeks. [The dogs' front leg will be broken and put in a splint].
He talked about how bad they'd be to work with after that, saying, 'They're bad
enough now, can you imagine what they'll be like after that?'
Then he said 'They should just break all of their legs so they'll be easier to
work with.' He joked about how great it would be to move them from to cage to
cage if all of their legs were broken.
All of the puppies jumped and pulled back when the tag was put on, some of them
screamed. Because they're attached to the tethers and have jackets and foam
collars on, the dogs can't even shake their heads after the ear-tag is pushed
through.
They can't rub their sore ear with a foot or shake the pain away. All they can
do is jump wildly in a tangled circle as the pain burns through.
I saw Nick, Kevin, Walter and Stephanie in the hallway holding a puppy down on
a cart. The puppy's head was turned toward the wall and the technicians were
gathered around her hind end. I had read a draft protocol of an upcoming
vaginal study and feared the worst when I stopped to watch what they were
doing.
Kevin was using a butterfly needle to obtain blood samples from the puppy’s
back leg. He was having trouble obtaining enough blood. Walter and Stephanie
told me its part of the protocol to obtain blood this way. The sponsor claims
they have a technician who can draw blood from the back leg using a butterfly
and she can do it alone without taking the dog from the cage.
When Kevin tried twice to get blood and couldn't get enough of a sample
Stephanie and Walter told him to give up and he replied in a stupid voice, 'I
will never give up...' and reached for another spaz
tube. Stephanie told me it's her study and they require TK bloods at several
intervals and they're using the butterflies so the vein won't collapse before
they're through.
Several times the dog got squirmy and tried to pull away. I had to keep moving
in close to help hold the dog's head and distract him by rubbing his ears. Nick
could have easily reached out a hand to help comfort the dog but he was
oblivious to the puppy's discomfort and fear.
He stayed motionless, staring as Kevin jabbed and poked. At one point when the
guys were fumbling around poking at the dog's leg and wondering what they
should try next Stephanie grabbed the dog's head roughly with both hands and
said, 'I know. They don't know what they're doing.' The puppy was so very
startled he pulled back from her and looked wide-eyed at me.
All I could think about was, I'm relieved they aren't
practicing a vaginal dose on this poor vulnerable puppy. The fact these poor
animals are held down and subjected to what ever horror the protocol calls for
is bad enough but to see several inept people gathered around to practice on a
completely helpless victim is unbearable.