Target: Tom Vilsack, United States Secretary of Agriculture
Goal: Demand U.S. labs stop culling animals bred in surplus.
In addition to the millions of animals killed during torturous experiments, millions more are killed in labs without ever being experimented on simply to save money and space. “Excess” lab animals may be culled for a series of reasons, for example they do not meet the criteria for a certain experiment or were bred while researchers were engineering a new generation. Whatever the reason may be, there is a simple solution; stop breeding animals in surplus.
In the German state of Hesse, animal rights activists have brought this issue to the public domain. According to legislation already in place throughout Germany and the rest of the EU, anyone who kills a vertebrate without proper reason can face up to 3 years in prison. Prosecutors are now investigating whether this unwarranted killing of “excess” animals in labs and institutions across the state may be considered a crime.
Sign this petition to demand similar actions are taken in the U.S. and to encourage labs to reduce animal surplus.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Secretary Vilsack,
Animal activists in Germany have shed light on a cruel practice that often goes unnoticed—the mass culling of animals in labs. While millions of animals are killed during painful medical and cosmetic experiments, millions of other lab animals are killed without ever even being experimented on in the first place. In the name of saving space, research labs and institutions throughout the world—including the U.S.—take to killing “excess” animals which they may deem unfit for studies at hand.
Now, prosecutors in the German state of Hesse are contemplating whether they should criminalize this culling of lab animals. In Germany and throughout the EU, legislation is already in place that anyone who should kill a vertebrate without proper reason may receive up to 3 years in prison, and the killing of excess mice, rats, fish, dogs, cats, rabbits, and other animals exploited in laboratory settings might just qualify as one such offense.
We are asking you, Mr. Vilsack, to penalize labs for unnecessarily killing animals and to encourage labs throughout the U.S. to reduce animal surplus.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Rama
267 Signatures