Abuse, Suffering, and Death in Pierce College Classrooms
OK, here’s the thing: You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand the handful of regulations that govern the treatment of animals in laboratories. What’s required of folks who use animals in laboratories is so embarrassingly obvious—animals who are sick or injured need veterinary care, animals who are too ill to be treated should be euthanized, dogs should be exercised, cages should be cleaned, and so on. And yet, vivisectors in labs across the country violate federal law every single day. Take this situation at Pierce College: A whistleblower has informed PETA that animals are being abused and killed in classroom laboratories by an instructor (Christa Slattery) and her students, in apparent violation of federal animal welfare regulations. The whistleblower told us that Slattery operates her classes like a “free for all,” allowing students to poke, prod, bleed, and inject animals with minimum guidance or instruction. And reportedly, when Slattery gets to the animals, it seems that she barely knows what she’s doing! The whistleblower told PETA that Slattery tried to push a large mouse into a small tube to restrain the mouse; she wondered whether the tube was too small but just shrugged her shoulders and continued to force the mouse into the tube. Minutes later, the mouse was dead. Here’s what the whistleblower had to say about the matter:
Ms. Slattery’s failure to provide detailed guidance in the form of thorough instruction, science-based guidelines, and careful supervision deprives the students in her class of an opportunity to receive adequate training in animal care procedures and leaves the animals used in demonstrations open to neglect, mistreatment, and abuse.
And here’s what PETA’s director of laboratory investigations told the media today:
Pierce College’s veterinary technician program appears to be teaching students that animals’ lives don’t matter. Slattery’s laboratory is apparently in violation of a host of federal regulations, and we’re urging the USDA to investigate and force Pierce to comply with animal protection regulations.
If you’d like to write to the veterinary school about this issue, you can do so through the handy Web form here.—GracePosted by Grace Freidan, Researcher
