On Friday, August 5, 2022, SHARK's work for the dog prisoners at Envigo was covered by the Kane County Chronicle. Read article below:

Blackberry Twp. animal activists’ drone documented inhumane conditions for beagles in Virginia


Cages of suffering and dying dogs freed because of SHARK's work for them

SHARK is glad our five years of work ultimately resulted in the shutdown of Envigo and release of 4,000 beagles from the terrible conditions they were forced to endure before being subjected to horrific experimentation and a brutal death.

However, there are many other facilities like Envigo also raising animals for horrific experimentation and product testing and this needs to stop!

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is asking Congress for $5 million in new funding to support its nonanimal methods (NAMs) initiative in fiscal 2023, which begins Oct. 1. The program would be coordinated by the FDA’s Office of the Chief Scientist. Read article below:

US FDA seeks to slash animal testing

Please contact your legislators and ask them to approve the new funding for the NAMs initiative. Look up your elected officials here. See suggested letter below to copy and paste and add your own personal notes:

Dear (Legislator name):

Please approve the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) request for $5 million in new funding to support its nonanimal methods (NAMs) initiative in fiscal year 2023, beginning October 1. 

Animal models have played a critical role in bringing new therapies to market, but animal models don’t always predict toxicity in humans. Drugs are absorbed, distributed, and metabolized differently in different species. Many drugs fail because toxicity problems do not arise in animal models but appear in human clinical trials.

Therapies that may benefit people might not make it to market because of toxicity in animal studies, yet that toxicity may be irrelevant to humans. Examples: Ibuprofen kills dogs in five days, but is of tremendous benefit to humans! The polio vaccine was delayed for six years because of testing complications on animals!

But advances in new technologies, such as microphysiological systems—2D or 3D cellular systems that mimic human organs—combined with in vitro cellular tests and in silico computational models, “present new opportunities to improve our ability to predict risk and efficacy,” states David Strauss, director of the FDA’s Division of Applied Regulatory Science. These tools may also “help bring products to market faster."

In addition, physiochemical and in vitro methods can be used instead of animal studies to evaluate whether a drug can induce a photochemical reaction in tissues, leading to irritation or an allergic reaction. Also, reconstructed human cornea–like epithelium and 3D reconstructed human epidermis models have replaced rabbit tests for eye irritation and skin sensitization, he said.

Patients are suffering and dying of toxicities while we wait to qualify these new methods.

Please quickly approve, the FDA's request for the new funding of $5 million to support its nonanimal methods (NAMs) initiative beginning October 1. 

Sincerely,
(Your name, address and phone number)



One of many thousands of suffering victims of Envigo's animal cruelty 

Our many trips to document this cruelty, as well as all of the other animal cruelty SHARK documents and exposes nationwide, are
expensive.

Your donations go to our investigations, not exorbitant executive salaries or fundraising.

SHARK can't continue without your support. Please donate here. 

On Tuesday, August 9, 2022, the Alameda County will be holding their Board of Supervisors Meeting. There is a proposed ordinance (5.08) to ban wild cow milking and the use of bucking straps, spurs and non release ropes during Rodeo Events in Alameda County. “Scrutiny continues to exist due to the potential harm to rodeo participants and animals specifically relating to the event of wild cow milking and the usage of specified devices such as bucking straps, spurs, and non-release ropes," reads part of the proposal. Wild cow milking is a team based competition to corral a cow and hold it still long enough to get milk into a bottle and rush to a waiting judge as fast as possible.

You can see details on the proposal here.

If you live in the area, please attend the meeting at: 

Alameda County Administration Building Supervisors' Chambers
1221 Oak Street
Fifth Floor, Room 512
Oakland, CA

If you live outside the area, please comment on this proposed ordinance by calling in using the following guidelines here.

Please share with all of your contacts.

Propose talking points include:

* Rodeo has nothing to do with ranching or preserving Western American culture or history.

* It is not a sport - in a sport, both participants are willing and of approximate skill level. In rodeos, there are the willing contestants and the animals being forced to participate endangering their very lives. 

* Every humane organization in the country condemns rodeos due to its inherent cruelty and fatality rates.

* Rodeos are not family-friendly events. Teaching children violence leads to more violence - look at all the school killings by students!

* The list of cities banning bucking straps, spurs and various other tools of rodeo is growing. Cities in California that ban rodeos are: Chino Hills, Irvine, Laguana Woods, Pasadena and soon Los Angeles.  

* The United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales) and the Netherlands have banned rodeos.

* Cesar Chavez said it best: "Kindness and compassion towards all living beings is a mark of a civilized society. Racism, economic deprival, dog fighting and cockfighting, bullfighting and rodeos are all cut from the same fabric: violence. Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well ourselves.” 

* For more information on rodeos, see RodeoCruelty.com.

Your donations go to our investigations, not exorbitant executive salaries or fundraising.

SHARK can't continue without your support. Please donate here.