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This is awful. By now most of us have seen the horrific footage aired by W5 last year of animals being experimented on and abused by employees of ITR Labs, a contract biotechnology research company located out in Baie-d’Urfé. The images are heart wrenching to say the least. Employees not only restraining animals and applying toxic substances to their skin or down their throats but also unnecessarily adding to the animals’ misery by punching, tossing and generally manhandling them. It is devastating. The unedited footage originally taped by Last Chance for Animals (LCA) is even more so. The company’s senior managers have continually shirked requests for interviews or explanations. Even more hard to believe is that the company still claims on its website that it ensures “the highest possible standard of animal welfare and care” and that it maintains full accreditation with a suit of regulatory bodies, including the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC). However, CCAC accreditation should be taken with a grain of salt since this organization is actually funded by the companies that it is supposed to regulate. It’s all awful.
It all has been enough to rouse the ire of many Montrealer’s. Since the footage was released a movement has started to protest ITR’s cruel treatment of its animals. This movement is in fact the first of its kind in Canada. Protestors regularly gather outside of the ITR facilities to condemn this abuse and to draw attention to the issue of animal welfare in Canada. Surprisingly, cosmetics testing on animals is already illegal in 30 other countries including India and all of the EU. I was so personally moved by the plight of these animals that I decided to go and join one of these protests myself. It was intense. This was my first time participating in a demonstration of any kind so I had no idea what to expect. What I discovered was a fierce and emotionally charged band of activists. They all brought every bit of fury, strength and passion that they could muster to ITR’s front steps. They were there to disrupt ITR’s business and they used every tool at their disposal, signs, air horns, drums, their voices, etc. The sheer level of emotion was nearly overwhelming. But they had their work cut out for them. Police were set up along the edge of ITR’s property. They would intermittently approach the protesters to tell them to please step back. The protesters would comply but push back with words. They asked the officers how they felt about what was happening behind those walls and protecting the people who did it. To their credit the officers did not get drawn into a debate and tried to keep the exchanges as simple and polite as possible. However, I wondered to myself if the bull horns and drums went silent whether I would have been able to see an officer’s face wince or hear their voice tremble as he or she upheld the right of companies like this to inflict such terrible pain on helpless animals. When I spoke to the protest’s organizer Ashley Ollie she told me that the activists had measured expectations. They took some contentment from the fact that their demonstrations had forced ITR to add security guards and fences to keep protestors away. Thereby making it more expensive for them to keep doing what they are doing. She was quick to point out though that their feet were firmly planted and that the protests would keep happening as long as the abuse and experiments did. The whole day took its toll. I tip my hat to the men and women, boys and girls who are still out there standing their ground steadfastly today.
Getting out to Baie-d’Urfé had taken me nearly two hours but I would not be deterred from seeing this for myself. This meant something to me personally. Not just because of the general horror that this sort of abuse provokes within me but because of one of ITR’s victims of choice. The LCA footage shows ITR experimenting on mice, monkeys, pigs and beagles. Beagles are the dog breed used most often in laboratory testing. According to PETA, approximately 60,000 dogs are held in laboratories each year in the US alone and it is generally accepted that a large majority of them are beagles. The demand from labs is so great that some companies make a good living out of breeding beagles specifically to be sold to laboratories as test subjects. (Check out this link for a look at the history of this ghastly industry http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/nuclear-history-of-lab-beagles/) The very thing that makes beagles such great companions is what motivates labs to use them in their tests they are gentle, trusting, eager to please, not very big and docile. In short, they are easy prey.
I must believe that this dreadful practice can end. Or that we can at least work towards a solution. The end result of a life of pain for most of these animals is usually a grim death and dissection on a cold steel table. Sometimes labs will euthanize still healthy animals just to keep evidence of their experiments secret. However, there is an organization based in LA that does specialize in the post-lab recovery and placement of animals like these. They are called the Rescue + Freedom Project (formerly the Beagle Freedom Project). They are the group that is responsible for the tear-jerking viral video of nine beagles being released from their cages and seeing grass for the first time a few years ago. You can check them out by going to the their website: https://rescuefreedomproject.org/. If one person from a lab like ITR is willing to reach out and speak with a member of R+FP then these animals can have a chance at a real life with people who care about them once their time of laboratory service is over. R+FP also agrees not to disclose the nature of any experiments conducted on the animals that it rescues. R+FP does not put any pressure on a company’s bottom line and no one’s job is put at risk. It is an easy PR win that ITR could surely use and it might even help bridge the gap between the technicians behind ITR’s walls and the angry unrelenting drum beat across the road.
If you or someone you know works at ITR labs please reach out or encourage them to contact me and I will be happy to put them in touch with the wonderful people at R+FP. Let’s all try to do something magnificent today and spread the word.
