Caged ‘Cats’ & ‘Dogs’ In Prague Protest Cruel Iams Experiments
Multinational Company Imprisons Animals to Test Dog and Cat Foods
For Immediate Release:
5 December 2003
Contact:
Andrew Butler +44 (0) 20 7357 9229, ext 230; +44 (0) 779 344 4020 (mobile)
Dawn Carr +44 (0) 20 7357 9229, ext 224
Lada Novy (Svoboda zvírat) +420 604 239 809 / +4210 604 239 809
Prague – Dressed in prisoner suits and dog and cat masks, activists will cram themselves into cages to illustrate the misery of animals neglected and killed in crude ‘nutrition’ tests conducted by the Procter & Gamble (P&G)-owned pet-food company Iams, which also manufacture Eukanuba. Concerned PETA members and dog- and cat-food purchasers will also hold signs reading, ‘IAMS – Konec pokusum na zviratech’. The protest will mark the Czech Repulic’s launch of PETA’s international campaign against Iams – similar actions are taking place throughout Europe and North America.
Date: 5 December 2003
Time: 3-4 p.m.
Place: Na Porici 42
A recent PETA undercover investigation revealed deplorable conditions at an Iams contract laboratory in the United States. At least 27 dogs were destroyed, while others died of illnesses that went untreated, despite assurances from Iams that no animal in any Iams test would ever be deliberately killed. Other Iams activities are equally deplorable. A whistleblower at a laboratory in Austria reported that dogs used by a vivisector whose salary is purportedly funded by Iams, are regularly kicked and beaten and that many become psychotic from being confined to small, barren, concrete cells for up to seven years. PETA’s Iams lab investigation also revealed the following:
• Dogs indefinitely confined to small cages in dungeon-like rooms
• Dogs’ vocal chords surgically cut out so that they couldn’t bark
• Dogs suffering from untreated ear infections, rotten teeth and injured paws
• Workers’ reports of a live kitten who was washed down a drain
• Terrified, unsocialized animals cowering in their cages
• Kennels that were stifling during summer months and near freezing in winter
• Dogs being force-fed vegetable oil through tubes inserted down their throats
Iams is cruelly imprisoning dogs and cats in real-life tests while feeding its customers a fiction about caring for animals’, says PETA Director Dawn Carr. ‘New companion-animal foods need to be tested at home, not on caged, lonely prisoner dogs and cats in laboratories hidden from the public.’
Broadcast-quality footage of animals in an Iams contract laboratory will be available on site. For more information, please visit PETA’s Web site IamsCruelty.com.