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

 

Multinational Company Imprisons Animals to Test Dog and Cat Foods


For Immediate Release:
20 May 2004


Contact:
Andrew Butler (PETA) 020 7357 9229, ext 230
Max Newton (Uncaged Campaigns) 0114 272 2220


Weybridge – Dressed in prisoner suits and dog and cat masks, activists will cram themselves into cages to illustrate the misery of animals who are neglected and killed in crude tests conducted by the Procter & Gamble (P&G)-owned pet-food company Iams, which also manufactures Eukanuba. Concerned members of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and Uncaged Campaigns will also hold signs reading, ‘Stop Iams Animal Tests’. The protest is part of an international campaign against Iams and coincides with Uncaged Campaigns’ eighth global ‘Boycott P&G’ Day:


Date:  Friday, 21 May
Time:  12 noon-2 p.m.
Place: P&G, The Heights, Brooklands (off Wellington Way), Weybridge
 
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. Other Iams activities are equally deplorable: A recent PETA US undercover investigation revealed highly abusive 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. PETA’s investigator also found the following:



  • Dogs indefinitely confined to small cages in dungeon-like rooms
  • Dogs whose vocal cords had been 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 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 fiction about caring for animals’, says PETA Director Dawn Carr. Max Newton of Uncaged Campaigns says, ‘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 IamsCruelty.co.uk or Uncaged.co.uk.



Note to Editors – Important Update!


As a result of intense international pressure, Iams have this week acceded to one of PETA’s key demands by agreeing to end laboratory-based nutritional testing. Tests that fall into this category represent only part of Iams’ extensive use of animals in laboratories, but this concession is, nevertheless, a small step forward.


Regrettably, however, Iams will still be conducting other laboratory tests on dogs and cats, including metabolised energy tests (MET) and ‘discovery phase’ tests. Researchers working for Iams were conducting METs at the contract laboratory that PETA’s undercover investigator exposed in March 2003, revealing abusive conditions such as those detailed in the news release above.


Iams’ credibility is dubious: They have talked for years about working towards developing alternatives to laboratory studies and phasing out laboratory tests as soon as alternatives become available, despite the facts that alternatives already exist and that there is no current legal requirement that dog- and cat-food manufacturers conduct any animal experiments whatsoever – and therefore no reason at all for Iams to continue studies with animals in laboratories. PETA and Uncaged Campaigns insist that Iams immediately put an end to all laboratory studies involving animals and instead follow the lead of progressive, cruelty-free dog- and cat-food manufacturers by only conducting non-invasive, benign studies in homes with dogs and cats whose guardians have volunteered them for such studies.


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