Celebrities Protest Iams’ Deadly Experiments On Dogs And Cats

Henk Bres and Henny Huisman Boost PETA Campaign

For Immediate Release:
4 May 2004

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

Holland – Henk Bres and Henny Huisman have a bone to pick with pet-food maker Iams-Eukanuba. Henk Bres, Holland’s ‘Man of the People’, and Henny Huisman, whose TV career dates back more than 20 years, have both joined PETA Europe’s campaign against Iams and vow to boycott the company until it stops conducting cruel and deadly experiments on dogs and cats. Taking a break from their busy schedules, they brandished signs reading, ‘Iams: We Won’t Buy While Dogs and Cats Die’, and posed with their pampered pooches for an exclusive photo.

Why are Bres, Huisman and PETA fed up with Iams? 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. PETA’s investigator also found the following:

• Dogs and cats confined to small, barren cages, some for up to six years
• Dogs whose vocal cords had been surgically cut out so that they couldn’t bark
• Workers’ reports of a live kitten who was washed down a drain
• Kennels that were extremely hot in the summer and near freezing in the winter
• Dogs force-fed vegetable oil through tubes inserted down their throats

‘Dogs used in Iams tests are no different from my dogs at home’, says Huisman, referring to his dogs Javert, Lover, and Sentha. ‘No animal deserves to be tormented in painful and unnecessary tests.’

‘Dogs are “man’s best friend”, and they should be treated like friends – not kept isolated in a tiny cage and experimented on’, says Bres.

‘Dog and cat lovers need to know that Iams has kept animals in barren steel cages, surgically mutilated them and denied them all comfort and companionship’, says PETA Europe’s Director of European Campaigns Sean Gifford. ‘These unfortunate animals deserve a shot at happiness.’

Broadcast-quality footage of animals in an Iams contract laboratory is available.

For more information, please visit PETA’s Web site PETA.nl. Copies of Henk and Henny’s anti-Iams photos are available upon request.

#