Bayer-And Zoetis-Linked Lab Prompts PETA Stock Purchase

Move Comes After Animal Neglect and Slow Deaths Uncovered at Liberty Research, Inc.

For Immediate Release:
July 18, 2017

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-43-7382

This morning, PETA bought stock in Bayer and Zoetis in order to inform shareholders about the pharmaceutical companies’ relationship with Liberty Research, Inc., a contract laboratory where PETA recently conducted an eyewitness exposé. Bayer’s U.S. headquarters is in Whippany, and Zoetis is based in Parsippany.

Video footage and photographs from PETA’s investigation reveal that dogs and cats at Liberty Research were held in miserable, barren conditions; denied adequate veterinary care; and killed in slow and stressful ways. In experiments sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, dogs and cats were injected with drugs and exposed to viruses and then killed or used in additional tests. In one experiment, a worker drilled into the skulls of 30 dogs—some of whom hadn’t been adequately anesthetized and whimpered during the process—and injected distemper virus into their brains.

“Bayer and Zoetis share in the culpability of the miserable lives and deaths of dogs and cats at Liberty Research,” says PETA Chief of Laboratory Case Management Dr. Alka Chandna. “As a shareholder, PETA will be able to challenge stakeholders and board members directly to review our evidence and reconsider doing business with this hellhole of a laboratory.”

In the laboratory, cats were kept in severely crowded pens in windowless buildings, and some were suffocated under flipped-over litterboxes. A cat named Jade, who was briefly paralyzed by seizures, was left without treatment for nearly four weeks before a worker finally gave him a fatal injection in his heart—possibly while he was still conscious. It took other workers more than seven minutes and four injections to kill a fully conscious, gasping, bloodied dog.

In addition to Bayer and Zoetis, Liberty Research’s recent customers include Merck, in which PETA already owns stock. Last month, PETA protested outside all three companies’ New Jersey headquarters.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.