PETA Ranks The ‘Dirty Dozen’: The Worst Executives For Animals In Laboratories

CEOs From Contract-Testing, Cosmetics, Airline, and Big Tobacco Corporations Win Top Dishonors for Cruelty to Animals

For Immediate Release:
April 24, 2013

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Norfolk, Va. — Twelve executives from a wide variety of industries have landed on PETA’s list of the Worst CEOs for Animals in Laboratories. “Winners” were chosen based on four criteria: conducting the most painful and invasive experiments, refusing to use available non-animal test methods, lagging behind industry standards for animal care, and having histories of violating the federal Animal Welfare Act.

“These CEOs are profiting from the misery and death of millions of animals every year,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. “The 12 companies on PETA’s list have repeatedly shown a disregard for animal welfare—and in many cases, for the law—as they perpetuate the abuse of animals in laboratories and refuse to use modern, reliable non-animal tests.”

Charles River Laboratories CEO James C. Foster comes in at the top of the list, as his company is responsible for breeding and testing on millions of animals each year. Rounding out the “Dirty Dozen” are the CEOs of other contract-testing laboratories Covance, The Jackson Laboratory, and Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories as well as pharmaceutical companies Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Pfizer. All these international companies force-feed test compounds to animals in painful and lethal experiments and leave many animals to suffer with no pain relief or other much-needed veterinary care. Marshall Farms Group, Ltd., one of the world’s largest breeders of beagles, ferrets, miniature pigs, and dogs, who are warehoused in tiny cages before being sold to laboratories around the world for deadly poisoning tests, also nabbed one of the top 12 spots.

The other “winners” are Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris, which still forces animals to inhale cigarette smoke; cosmetics giant Avon, which recently began secretly paying for poisoning tests on animals in China; Tier 1 Group, a notorious military contractor that mutilates animals in archaic training drills; and Air France, one of the last airlines in the world that still transports primates for the violent experimentation industry.

For more information and to read more about each of the Dirty Dozen, please click here.