Covance Fined for Violations of the Animal Welfare Act

One year after PETA's undercover investigator left the laboratory of animal-testing conglomerate Covance, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has fined the company for violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) based on PETA's documentation. Among the citations issued by the USDA are the following:

•Animals were deprived of sufficient veterinary care and euthanasia.
•Animals were subjected to painful procedures but were denied pain relief.
•Primates were subjected to physically abusive handling.
•Monkeys were not provided with psychological enrichment and socialization.
•Dogs were not provided with adequate housing.
•Dogs were not exercised.

From April 2004 to March 2005, PETA's investigator worked undercover as a primate technician inside Covance's facility in Vienna, Virginia, documenting horrendous abuse of monkeys. Damning video footage revealed that workers hit monkeys, threw them against cage doors, and psychologically tormented them. Sick and injured monkeys were left in their cages without veterinary care. Deprived of any environmental enrichment to ensure their psychological well-being, monkeys circled frantically in their cages, pulled out their hair, and chewed their own flesh.

Citing the video footage as evidence, PETA filed a complaint with the USDA for egregious AWA violations. While the USDA has been criticized by the Office of the Inspector General for failing to fine AWA violators sufficiently—creating a climate in which “violators consider the monetary stipulation as a normal cost of conducting business rather than a deterrent for violating the law”—the fine levied against Covance represents a significant penalty and indicates serious wrongdoing inside Covance's labs.

This is not the first time that Covance has been censured for misconduct. In May 2005, after PETA U.S. went public with video footage shot inside Covance's Virginia lab, Covance filed for an injunction to prevent PETA Europe from showing the video. A U.K. judge dismissed that case, characterizing the video as “highly disturbing.” The judge also commented on the “rough manner in which the animals [are] handled and the bleakness of the surroundings in which they are kept,” matters that he said, “cry out for explanation.”

Even as Covance has shown itself to be incapable of treating animals humanely, earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration advised companies such as Covance to modernize and streamline the drug development process by better utilizing early phases of clinical trials (e.g., human microdosing studies). In particular, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt noted, “Currently, nine out of ten experimental drugs fail in clinical studies because we cannot accurately predict how they will behave in people based on laboratory and animal studies.” New non-animal tests are continually being developed and adopted, heralded as faster, cheaper, and more effective than animal tests. Using complex computer programs that crunch data on human genetics, biochemistry, and molecular biology, biotech companies like Physiome and Pharmagene constitute the cutting edge of drug development. Meanwhile, companies like Covance that pump dogs, monkeys, and other animals full of drugs in painful, lethal tests are mired in the past.

Learn more about experiments on primates.