“What I saw at Columbia still gives me nightmares. I saw baboons whose left eyes had been cut out so that major blood vessels could be clamped off through the empty sockets to induce strokes-and who had collapsed in their cages, unable to lift their heads, eat, or drink after this horrendous surgery.”, reports Dr. Catherine Dell’Orto, a postdoctoral veterinary fellow at Columbia.

Grotesque abuses to animals in laboratories at Columbia University are reported, including subjecting baboons to invasive surgeries and leaving them to suffer and die in their cages without any painkillers.
NEW YORK(RUSHPRNEWS)09/27/2008-Dozens of university campuses across America deserve a resounding “F” from animals for the dark secret they’re hiding behind campus walls. These schools house laboratories where animals are subjected to painful and outdated tests-often funded with your tax dollars. I will tell you in a moment exactly what we are doing to stop this mess, but first let me explain.

You can help double our efforts to help animals in laboratories. Donate now, and your gift will be matched, dollar-for-dollar. If you donate to PETA today for our online “Stop Animal Testing” Challenge, your gift will be doubled, and you will help us teach universities that they must stop torturing and killing animals. For every dollar we raise from supporters like you, the donations will be doubled, up to $250,000, to help animals in laboratories!

Those resources will help PETA save more animals on campuses than ever before. Already, we’ve won crucial victories for animals at the University of Washington, the University of Connecticut, and other places. Our work is leading to federal fines, the revocation of research grants, the suspension of cruel experiments, and public outcry. No one else is doing so much in so many different ways to help these animals!

While we’ve accomplished much, millions of individual dogs, monkeys, mice, rabbits, and other animals are still suffering in university laboratories. Won’t you please help us attack these experiments by making a gift to PETA today to have it matched dollar-for-dollar?

To show you the lifesaving difference your support makes, I want to update you on our Columbia University campaign. Some time ago, PETA was contacted by Dr. Catherine Dell’Orto, a veterinarian who worked in a laboratory at Columbia and was horrified to witness the “cruel and negligent” treatment of animals. Her accounts were sickening and enraging:

“What I saw at Columbia still gives me nightmares. I saw baboons whose left eyes had been cut out-so that major blood vessels could be clamped off through the empty sockets to induce strokes-and who had collapsed in their cages, unable to lift their heads, eat, or drink after this horrendous surgery. They were left in these dire conditions without any painkillers ?. In another experiment, in which baboon fetuses are infused with nicotine, I saw a pregnant baboon who had lost 40 percent of her bodyweight. It was a tragic sight, and resulted from nothing short of intentional neglect, as her condition had been documented on her chart for weeks.”

Dr. Dell’Orto tried to improve the conditions in Columbia’s laboratory but was stonewalled by university officials. Frustrated, she turned to PETA for help. Our investigators collected video footage and other documentation of the abuses in the laboratory, and PETA filed federal complaints. We held a news conference outside Columbia’s gates and launched a vigorous campaign against the university’s cruel primate experiments.

Thanks to PETA’s hard work, the stroke experiments on baboons were canceled. Dr. Dell’Orto’s supervisor, who had allowed the abuses to go unchecked, was fired. The U.S. government then cited and fined Columbia for violations of the Animal Welfare Act. Columbia also had to create a full-time position to ensure that the animals in its laboratories receive environmental enrichment to ease the misery of life in a cage.

Your support for PETA helps end the torture of animals in laboratories. And by donating in this special online “Stop Animal Testing” challenge, your gift can have twice the impact.

Thank you for bringing hope to animals abused in university experiments.

Very truly yours,

Ingrid Newkirk
Ingrid E. Newkirk
President

P.S. PETA’s “Stop Animal Testing” Challenge is a vital opportunity to raise the funds we must have to protect more animals who are locked away in laboratories.

Your special online gift today in this special Challenge this will help us expose these painful experiments and work aggressively to bring them to an end, once and for all. With the lives of so many vulnerable animals at stake, please be as generous as you can afford to be.