I'm sorry for such a downer post so close to the holidays but I couldn't help but re-post this. Please take some time to read and clink on the few links. I rarely check PETA's site because I cry every time, but once in a while we have to force ourselves to see what's actually happening right under our noses. Possibly in lieu of a gift this season you could make a donation to one of the animal friendly organizations.

Inside Covance U.S.

Introduction

PETA's investigator was hired by Covance as a technician and worked inside the company's primate testing lab in Vienna, Virginia, from April 26, 2004, to March 11, 2005. The investigator's video documentation inside the lab started on July 30, 2004, and what she documented-the terror, sadness, sickness, injuries, suffering, and deaths of monkeys from the wild and Covance's own breeding facilities—will leave even the staunchest supporter of animal testing ashamed and all good people clamoring for justice. It will also make it perfectly clear that government oversight of labs such as Covance is a farce.

At Covance, animal technicians called the head veterinarian "Mr. Let's Wait and See." The primate staff—even those who were, themselves, often cruel to the monkeys—complained repeatedly about a young monkey with a broken arm being left untreated in his cage for four days. Apparently, "Mr. Let's Wait and See," the head vet at Covance, didn't know what to do about the bone break, and so he waited for a junior veterinarian to return from her time off. The junior vet immediately ordered the animal euthanized as the break was too severe to repair. She discovered and disclosed that the head veterinarian had given the baby monkey a drug that had little more effect than that of an aspirin for his unimaginable pain.

Other Documented Horrors for Animals at Covance

Striking and choking "uncooperative" monkeys
Screaming curses at frightened, sick monkeys
Slamming monkeys into their cages after they've had dosing tubes rammed down their throats
Hosing down cages with monkeys still inside, soaking the animals
A loose monkey terrorized by a technician who slams cages into walls to scare the animal out of hiding
Monkeys with chronic rectal prolapses-painful protrusions of the intestines through the rectum-resulting from constant stress and diarrhea
Monkeys who died horribly in tests for a drug company-the veterinarian was forbidden to examine them or provide any treatment, including euthanasia
Small monkeys dosed with large tubes forced up their nostrils and down into their stomachs, causing choking, gagging, and daily bloody noses
Monkey self-mutilation resulting from Covance's failure to provide psychological enrichment and socialization
Injuries left untreated until they became necrotic
Nonstop blaring rock music

What can you do?

PETA has a very active anti-vivisection campaign and works tirelessly to stop animal testing. Thanks to the support of caring individuals like you, we are making real headway in our fight against vivisection. You can help:

Purchase only cruelty-free products and donate only to health charities that never fund animal experiments.
Boycott Iams and other pet food companies that conduct cruel nutritional tests on dogs and cats and support forward-thinking companies that conduct humane home testing or laboratory analysis of foods. Learn what you can do to help animals in Iams laboratories.

that use animals for "education" and ask them to eliminate live-animal labs from their curricula.
Help stop the animal abuse at Columbia University, where baboons are subjected to invasive surgeries and left to suffer and die in cages without any painkillers.
Find out what you can do to stop the cruel spinal experiments performed on cats and rats at Palmer Chiropractic University. If you are an employee of Palmer Chiropractic University and have witnessed extreme cruelty to animals there, please report what you saw.
Become a behind-the-scenes hero for animals! PETA is always looking for undercover investigators.
If you have witnessed cruelty in any other laboratory, please report what you saw.
Refuse to contribute to charities such as Environmental Defense, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, which, surprisingly, help fund the cruel animal experiments performed by the Environmental Protection Agency. Read our complete list of "mean greenies."
Write your representatives in Congress to demand that humane alternatives to animal experiments be used. Refer to PETA's helpful guide to writing effective letters.
Read PETA's factsheet on alternatives to animal testing and learn how you can help animals who are used for experimentation.
Visit AnimalActivist.com for even more ways to get active for animals.