animal testing

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Company Wants to Breed 30K Macaques in Georgia

Residents say they're worried about escapes from proposed Bainbridge facility

(Newser) - Some local residents and an animal-rights group are protesting plans for a monkey-breeding facility in southwest Georgia. Opponents urged the Bainbridge City Council this week to block plans by a company called Safer Human Medicine to build a $396 million complex that would eventually hold up to 30,000 long-tailed...

UK Quietly Does 180 on Animal Testing of Makeup

Government apparently reversed its stance in 2019, after decades-long ban

(Newser) - The UK government had banned the testing of makeup ingredients on animals for more than two decades when it quietly reversed its stance in 2019. It began issuing licenses for animal testing of cosmetic ingredients in line with European Union rules, which don't allow animal testing to determine whether...

Reuters: Musk Firm Has Killed 1.5K Animals in Experiments

Sources say pressure from Musk is leading to rushed Neuralink experiments

(Newser) - At a demonstration for Neuralink last week, Elon Musk showed off a test monkey that had one of his company's brain implants inserted. He said "the monkeys actually enjoy doing the demos," and there was nothing evident from the monkey onstage that there was anything amiss. Musk...

Unusual Shortage Could Affect Vaccine Research

US doesn't have enough test monkeys

(Newser) - The US needs a coronavirus vaccine. It also needs monkeys on which to test that vaccine, and that's where we have a problem. As the Atlantic reports, there is a national shortage of "nonhuman primates" used in animal testing, most of which come from China. The country provided...

USDA Ending 'Taxpayer-Funded Kitten Slaughter'

Toxoplasmosis research had gotten a lot of bad press recently

(Newser) - Since 1982, a US government research program has resulted in thousands of cats dying. No more: The Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday that its Agricultural Research Services lab will no longer use cats in its experiments. For decades, as part of its research into toxoplasmosis, ARS had been infecting kittens...

Use More Female Lab Rats, Feds Tell Scientists

NIH says gender bias in research hurts women's health

(Newser) - If medical researchers want money from the National Institutes of Health, they'll have to put an end to the boys' club in the lab. The new NIH rules aren't talking about a gender bias among the scientists themselves, however, but among their test subjects—specifically animals and cells,...

Stopping Tests on Chimps Hurts ... Chimps

NIH move is bad for animals in the long run: research center chief

(Newser) - The NIH is drastically reducing its research on chimps, a move that animal rights advocates hail as humane and long overdue. They've got it exactly backward, writes the director of a research center affected by the move. What they fail to consider is that chimp research doesn't just...

US: Chimps Too 'Endangered' for Research

Agency might give status to all chimps, both in captivity and wild

(Newser) - A new proposal by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to declare chimpanzees living in captivity as "endangered" rather than "threatened" is more than just semantics: It will help protect the primates from being the subjects of medical research. Since 1990, only wild chimps have classified by the...

Bill Exempts Researchers on Animal Cruelty Charges

But Wisconsin scientists must show work is legit

(Newser) - Rats in Wisconsin might sleep a little less easy tonight. A provision in the state budget gives researchers who test on animals exemption from state animal cruelty charges as long as their work is "bona fide," reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel . Researchers could still face federal prosecution if...

Feds Halt New Tests on Aging Lab Chimps

New Mexico chimps win reprieve

(Newser) - Some 186 elderly chimpanzees formerly used in invasive research have been given a temporary reprieve from more experiments. The National Institutes of Health, which had planned to transfer the chimps from their home at an NIH facility in New Mexico to a Texas research facility, has announced that the chimps...

Scientists Move Closer to Womb Transplant

Successful rabbit test means human test could be 2 years away

(Newser) - British doctors have performed successful uterus transplants in rabbits, meaning they could try the procedure on a human woman in as little as two years. Researchers say they’ve solved the blood supply problems that have until now bedeviled uterus transplants; a Saudi woman tried the procedure in 2000, but...

Yale Suspect Scolded Victim Over Lab Mice

(Newser) - If Ray Clark did, as police apparently suspect, kill Annie Le, investigators have an odd theory about his motivation, the New York Daily News reports. In emails that caught their attention, the Yale lab technician scolded Le about her lax handling of mice in the lab. Le apologized, but investigators...

Activists Torch Drug CEO's Home, Steal Mom's Ashes

(Newser) - Animal rights militants have torched the home of the CEO of drug giant Novartis and stolen his mother's ashes from a Swiss cemetery, say company officials. Employees' cars have also been vandalized and attacked with crude explosive devices, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Rodent Rights Activists Face Uphill Climb

Animal campaigners seek a better quality of life for lab rats

(Newser) - Activists have managed to improve the lives of many animals in recent years, but they've met indifference when it comes to getting a better deal for rodents, the Wall Street Journal reports. Rats and mice make up 90% of the animals used in research in the US, say advocates, but...

Critics Beef About Pig Explosions in US Army Tests

Campaigners question need to test body armor by blowing up pigs in Humvees

(Newser) - Animal rights activists have condemned the US military for blowing up live pigs to test body armor, USA Today reports. Military officials say the tests provided valuable information on the relationship between body armor and brain injury. But critics say the pig-blasting program caused unnecessary animal suffering for questionable results....

32 Research Monkeys Die in Overheated Lab

Animals 'cooked to death' when heating system malfunctioned

(Newser) - Thirty-two research monkeys at a Nevada laboratory died because their human handlers left the room fatally hot, said officials for the drug company that runs the facility. Charles River Laboratories representatives have met with USDA officials to discuss new measures to avoid a repeat of the accident that involved a...

Rats! Humans, Rodents Have Lots in Common

Much-maligned animals laugh, dream, look forward to sex

(Newser) - Rats may be repulsive to some, but scientists are finding that they're a lot like humans. A recent crop of behavioral studies shows that rats are astonishingly self-aware, Natalie Angier reports in today's Times. They laugh when tickled and dream in epic narratives. There are even rat optimists and rat...

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