Former Animal Experimenter Decries Cruelty at Covance

Dr. Barbara Orlans, University Affiliate, Georgetown University

I am a former animal researcher, and I worked in pharmacological research for a number of years at the National Institutes of Health. I have experience with small mammals, cats, and dogs, but not with nonhuman primates as research subjects. However, I am experienced in visiting nonhuman primate research facilities for NIH oversight review. I am a member of the professional association the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. My animal research assessed new drugs for potential use to treat heart disease. The purpose was to establish the pharmacologic distribution and actions of these drugs.

I was shocked at many aspects of the way the Covance monkeys were treated. The harsh handling might give the impression that these animals are non-sentient ?items,? not live animals capable of pain, distress, and mental anguish. Some monkeys were terrified as they were pulled from their cages and forcibly restrained. Some demonstrated stereotypical behavior involving futile, repetitive circling or pacing. This behavior develops only when animals are maintained for significant time in unacceptable, barren environments that frustrate expression of normal behavior. This is a grossly abnormal mental state that should never occur in properly housed captive animals.

Much of the video footage involves severe restraint of the monkeys. One monkey is shown in a restraint chair where the animal is immobilized at multiple body sites—neck, arms, legs, and so on. I believe it was many years ago that such a restraint method was outlawed by the national policies of Canada. In my opinion, such restraint chairs should be totally banned from use.

In addition, a monkey is shown being restrained into a tight-fitting tube. I have encountered this method of restraint for laboratory rats and mice, but never for monkeys. It is inhumane.

A procedure repeatedly shown is forced injection of a substance through a naso-gastric tube. Insertion of naso-gastric tubes ought to be done with great care because it is particularly painful. I can attest to that from having personally experienced insertion of such a tube. Physicians have told me that it is one of the procedures most feared by their patients. The delicate tissues of the inside of the nose and throat are easily damaged, which results in much pain. Also, care is needed to ensure that the injected material ends up in the correct place—the stomach. By mistake, the injection could go into the lungs. The rough way these procedures are shown in the video leaves me uncertain that the substance was always delivered to the correct site.