Alliance for Animals
P.O. Box 1632, Madison, Wisconsin 53701
Phone: 608-257-6333 E-mail: alliance@allanimals.org
Website: http://www.allanimals.org/ and
http://www.madisonmonkeys.com/
October 6, 2007
Contact: Rick Bogle (608) 222-2348 or rbogle@primatefreedom.com;
Lori Nitzel
(608) 442-7270 or alliance@allanimals.org
GLORIA STEINEM SAYS 'NO' TO COVANCE CRUELTY
MADISON- Covance, Inc., one of Madison's largest employers, is no longer
welcome as a sponsor of a local fundraising event. Gloria Steinem, who will
appear in Madison to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of a local human
services agency, asked that the organization drop Covance as a sponsor of
their October 16th event.
Ms. Steinem, one of the stars of the modern feminist movement and founder of
Ms. Magazine, has taken a public stand against animal research. In its
sprawling laboratory complex near Madison's airport, thousands of monkeys,
dogs and other live animals are used by Covance to test drugs, cleaning
products and other chemicals. When alerted by the Alliance for Animals
Primate Freedom Project, a partnership between a Madison-based animal rights
group and a small national nonprofit, that Covance was a major sponsor of
the 30th anniversary celebration, Ms. Steinem was concerned and issued a
statement through her New York office:
"Gloria Steinem expressed her severe discomfort at participating at an event
for [a local human services agency] sponsored by Covance after she was
alerted to the fact that thousands of animals suffer in the Covance
laboratories.
She stated, 'Animal abuse is so connected to domestic abuse -- literally in
a household, but societally in a more general way, too.' Using one's power
to harm others is contrary to Ms. Steinem's life's work and Covance was
dropped as a sponsor for the event."
Gloria Steinem's Office
PO Box 893
NY, NY 10268
(212) 425-0044; fax (212) 425-1133 Mariecochs@aol.com
"We are grateful to Ms. Steinem for standing against violence in all of its
forms," states Lori Nitzel, Executive Director of the Alliance for Animals.
"If the public could see what goes on in the animal research labs they would
demand an immediate end to this horrible abuse."
Covance's Madison, Wisconsin location consumes thousands of both dogs and
monkeys annually in product tests of dubious value. Surreptitiously-made
video recordings from within Covance primate labs in Germany and in Virginia
have led to widespread condemnation of the company's practices.
In 2003, upon viewing video from the Covance lab in Germany, Jane Goodall
said, "To use monkeys in experiments like this is absolutely not
acceptable .The video that I saw showing how these helpless animals were
treated, the brutality, the callousness, the joking and laughing, the total
lack of dignity; they were being treated like inanimate things, and it
deeply shocked me." [Animal News. 2003]
In 2007, Covance was ordered to pay PETA Europe $290,000 when a British
court dismissed a lawsuit Covance brought to stop the group from publicizing
video footage taken from inside a Covance monkey lab in Vienna, Virginia,
during an 11-month undercover investigation in 2005. The video documents
workers striking, choking, and taunting monkeys. The cages are small and
barren. Monkeys were documented "circling frantically., pulling out their
hair, and chewing their own flesh." [PETA.org]
Currently, local citizens in Chandler, Arizona, are fighting the planned
building of another giant Covance animal testing lab. ["Covance new
animal-testing plant still drawing controversy." outsourcing-pharma.com.]
The Alliance for Animals is a Wisconsin-based nonprofit organization
advocating for the rights of all non-human animals by campaigning for humane
treatment and educating for change. The Alliance for Animals advances its
goals through demonstrations, media outreach, conferences, investigations,
legislation, and person-to-person contact, as we strive to fundamentally
transform how society views and treats all sentient beings.
pdf with active links:
http://www.madisonmonkeys.com/gloria_steinem_covance.pdf
