Save the Oklahoma University Baboons

TARGET: University of Oklahoma, Kelly Damphousse, Dean - We've got 92,997 supporters, help us get to 95,000

Researchers at the University of Oklahoma were investigated multiple times and found to be abusing baboons in their studies. Between 2013 and 2015, at least 51 baboons died in the facility.

Newborn baboons were separated from their mothers just to see how they would react. One USDA inspector found infant baboon enclosures that were so dirty they posed a health risk. And one report found an infant baboon dead on the ground, "partially cannibalized."

Now, University officials are announcing they will shut down their baboon research program - but the safety of these baboons hasn't been guaranteed.

Sign this petition to demand that baboons from the research program are placed at a safe and reputable sanctuary.

These poor animals have endured too much in their pasts at Oklahoma University. Now that the facility is closing its doors, there is hope that the remaining baboons could finally be free from cruelty.

But their safety is nowhere near guaranteed. Oklahoma University has a history of abusing these animals, and we have no guarantee that the primates won't be transferred to other laboratories where their abuse would continue.

Join the call to protect these baboons by signing and sharing this petition. Such cruelty should have been stopped long before but it is never too late to step in and be a voice for the voiceless.

Tell Univ of Oklahoma to provide baboons sanctuary vs transfer to a research lab. SAEN - Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! In September 2015 the University of Oklahoma (OU) announced their bold step to close their baboon research and breeding program on the heels of a campaign by SAEN – Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! But now, the future of over 670 baboons is uncertain. Please sign our petition asking the University of Oklahoma to retire their baboons to a sanctuary rather than killing or transferring them to another animal testing facility!

OU is still responsible for the baboons in their research and breeding colony even after the closure of this program. The best outcome is for OU to convert their baboon facility into a sanctuary as recommended by SAEN and primate experts.

Instead, OU has stated that they are “working closely with the National Institutes of Health to develop a comprehensive plan for the placement of the baboons." Your signature is a crucial voice in demanding that these baboons not be transferred to another research facility!

Please join us in signing and sharing this petition to support OU in their bold closure announcement and encourage them to take the precedent-setting step of turning OU’s baboon facility into a sanctuary!

LETTER TO

University of Oklahoma, President David L. Boren

First, we want to thank you for your bold decision to close OU’s baboon research and breeding program.

However, we are very concerned about a statement circulating in the media that "OU is working closely with the National Institutes of Health to develop a comprehensive plan for the placement of the baboons." Our concern lies in that your baboons will be transferred to another research facility instead of being retired.

Please work with primate experts in initiating a precedent-setting step of turning OU’s baboon facility into a sanctuary.

Stop Animal Fighting Experiments at Northeastern University!

For nearly two decades, experimenters from the Department of Psychology at Northeastern University in Boston have been injecting hamsters with anabolic-androgenic steroids and other aggression-promoting drugs and then forcing them to fight each other. Since 1996, the experimenters have injected hundreds of animals with steroids, cocaine, and other substances, sometimes drilling into their skulls and injecting the drugs straight into their brains.

After a hamster is drugged and becomes hyper-aggressive, experimenters put a hamster who has not been injected with drugs into the drugged hamster's cage, exploiting the animals' natural tendencies to be solitary and territorial in order to force them to be aggressive in these contrived scenarios. Experimenters watch, videotape, and even "score" the ensuing fight, rating the hamsters on how many times they bite, attack, lunge at, and trap the other animal. They then declare a "winner" and a "loser."

Like a twisted sports-style tournament, they force some of the animals to fight multiple times against different opponents as they advance with each "win." Other animals are killed and then have their brains dissected. For these macabre animal-fighting experiments, the team received more than $306,000 in taxpayer money from the National Institutes of Health in 2015 alone, and more than $3 million since 1996.

These violent experiments are not only cruel but appear to violate Massachusetts state laws against cruelty to animals and animal fighting. PETA is calling on the Massachusetts attorney general to end these experiments and if appropriate press charges against those responsible

Please join PETA's efforts by contacting Northeastern University officials and urging them to put an immediate stop to these animal fighting experiments.

DWA: PLEASE release this beautiful and amazing animal to a sanctuary - I have one willing to take him.

South Korea Passes Bill to Phase Out Animal Testing!

Earlier this month, the Korea National Assembly passed a bill to phase out animal testing for cosmetics by 2018! It is a wonderful step forward as South Korea now joins countries such as India, Israel and Brazil which have all taken steps to end cruel and unnecessary animal testing.

This initial step taken by South Korea focuses on finished products and ingredients, but unfortunately still allows for tests on imports. While continued progress needs to happen, we are hopeful that this is the first step to a complete ban. The European Union’s complete ban in 2013 began in just the same way, back in 2004.

Animals such as dogs, cats, rabbits, rats and mice endure extreme suffering throughout the world, all for the sake of cosmetics. Millions of animals experience severe torture such as being force-fed ingredients to determine toxicity and carcinogenicity and have chemicals repeatedly rubbed into their shaved skin or ears before being killed. Such experiments are not only cruel, but are completely unnecessary as they are often unreliable and humane alternatives already exist.

Click here to read more and take action.

R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris Still Testing Tobacco on Animals.

Their skin peeling off …
Their hair falling out …
Their eyes oozing …
Smoke pumped directly into their noses for hours a day …
Their bare skin painted with tar …
Tumors on their skin …

This is what animals endure in experiments conducted by tobacco giants R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris International.
If you thought that tobacco companies didn't still fund or conduct cruel experiments on animals, you were wrong. In fact, two of the world's largest companies still do painful, archaic, and irrelevant tobacco tests on animals even though they aren't required by law and even though superior non-animal testing methods are readily available.

Lorillard Tobacco, the third-largest manufacturer of cigarettes in the U.S., has banned tobacco tests, and tobacco product tests on animals have even been banned entirely in the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, and other countries.

Tell Philip Morris International and R.J. Reynolds to stop.

Tell MetLife: Support Chimps in Liberia, Stop Funding NYBC

MetLife is a billion dollar global company that has given hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to the New York Blood Center (NYBC), which abandoned over 60 chimpanzees in Liberia after using them in experiments for decades. NYBC infected these chimps, as well as many more, with viruses like hepatitis and subjected them to invasive procedures, including liver biopsies. It has financially benefitted from patents derived from its research using chimpanzees, but now that it's done using these animals, NYBC refuses to take responsibility for their care.

While NYBC is ignoring pleas from the public, it might listen if a major funder like MetLife threatens to stop its support.

MetLife's Code of Conduct states that it "has built a reputation as a company that believes in fair dealing, integrity, and trustworthiness" and that it aims to "adhere to the highest standards of ethical conduct." Clearly, NYBC does not share MetLife's ethical business standards. To uphold its Code of Conduct, MetLife should immediately stop all donations to NYBC until it resumes funding for the care of the chimpanzees it abandoned in Liberia.

Ask MetLife to support the chimpanzees in Liberia by ending its funding to NYBC.

TAKE ACTION

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