Caged ‘Cats’ And ‘Dogs’ Protest Cruel Iams Experiments

Multinational Company Imprisons Animals to Test Dog and Cat Foods

For Immediate Release:
9 August 2004

Contact:
Sean Gifford +44 20 7357 9229, ext 226
Dawn Carr +44 20 7357 9229, ext 224

Holland – 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 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, “Stop Iams Cruelty”, while one activist shows video footage of the cruel conditions found inside an Iams contract laboratory:

Date:  Tuesday, 10 August
Time:  12 noon sharp
Place: Maastricht, Grote Straat 5-15, near the Vroom and Dreesmann

Date:   Wednesday, 11 August
Time:  12 noon sharp
Place: Arnhem, corner of Vijvelstraat and Weverstraat
 
Date:  Thursday, 12 August
Time:  12 noon sharp
Place: Utrecht, Vredenburg

Date:  Friday, 13 August
Time:  12 noon sharp
Place:  Rotterdam, Proctor and Gamble Headquarters, Watermanweg 100

A recent PETA U.S. undercover investigation revealed deplorable conditions at an Iams contract laboratory in the United States. At least 27 dogs were killed, 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 reportedly 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 U.S.’s  Iams lab investigation also revealed the following:

·        Dogs indefinitely confined to small cages in dungeon-like rooms

·        Dogs’ vocal cords 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, unsocialised 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 Europe Director of European Campaigns Sean Gifford. “New companion-animal foods need to be tested at home, not on caged, lonely prisoner dogs and cats in laboratories hidden from the public.”

PETA’s campaign against Iams recently received a boost from Dutch celebrities Henny Huisman and Henk Bres, who brandished signs reading, “Iams: We Won’t Buy While Dogs and Cats Die”, and posed with their pampered pooches for exclusive photos which can be seen at www.PETA.nl.

Broadcast-quality footage of animals in an Iams contract laboratory will be available on site. For more information, please visit www.IamsCruelty.com.

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