PETA ALSO INVESTIGATING PIERCE

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What on earth is going on at Pierce? Skinned cat, farm animal abuse and now torture, abuse and killing of lab animals.

What is wrong there? What are the ethics of those in charge, from low grade faculty like Crista Slattery, on up to Leland Shapiro and Dick South, on up to Dean Rupert? Is there no oversight by anyone at Pierce?

Mr. Boks, we need you to investigate all of the complaints of animal cruelty, neglect, mismanagement, illegal collusion between LAAS employees, obstruction of justice, etc., involving Pierce faculty, staff and LAAS and ACTF employees. This is a cesspool and you need to clean it up.

All these complaints of animal harm is happening on your watch now, about animals in Los Angeles on a state community college campus. Mr. Boks, you must mount a credible investigation and present the findings, not in months, but within days of this notice.

As I posted before, you make promises to Council to do studies, but you don't do them and people forget that you ever promised anything. Act now Mr. Boks. Investigate Pierce.

The four URLs below refer to various PETA posts and petitions.


http://blog.peta.org/archives/pierce_college

http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/pierce_petition

http://www.stopanimaltests.com/index.aspx

http://blog.peta.org/archives/2008/06/abuse_suffering.php
Story #1

Prompted by a complaint from PETA, federal officials are investigating allegations that animals are being abused and killed in Pierce College's veterinary technology program—in violation of federal animal welfare regulations—by an instructor and her students. According to a student who blew the whistle on the abuse, faculty member Christa Slattery, who is also an animal resources supervisor in the Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, is operating a classroom laboratory without adhering to legally required guidelines for the treatment of animals. This has apparently caused unnecessary suffering and death.

The following are just some of the alleged abuses:

Slattery seems unqualified to show veterinary technician procedures on animals. She used just one rabbit to teach all the students in a class to withdraw blood.

The rabbit's ears were stuck with a needle 12 times in a single blood-collection session, far exceeding the commonly accepted maximum of four punctures.

Slattery permitted an untrained student to attempt to trim a rat's teeth, which resulted in a severe laceration and profuse bleeding from the rat's tongue.

Slattery forced a large mouse into a restraint tube and even suggested that the tube was too small. The severely restrained animal died within minutes. When students complained, Slattery reportedly told them, "I'd appreciate it if you guys are discreet."
Given no direction, a student who attempted to restrain a mouse in a piece of cloth wrapped the mouse so tightly that the animal suffered a seizure.

Christa Slattery's dismissive attitude toward animals' pain and distress, her apparent failure to provide adequate instruction to and careful supervision of students who attempt to perform procedures on animals, and her overall incompetence leave animals vulnerable to neglect, mistreatment, and abuse.

PETA is calling on Pierce College to fully investigate these claims and should they prove true to fire Christa Slattery and implement guidelines to ensure that animals do not continue to suffer.

Story #2

Abuse, Suffering, and Death in Pierce College Classrooms

OK, here's the thing: You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand the handful of regulations that govern the treatment of animals in laboratories.

What's required of folks who use animals in laboratories is so embarrassingly obvious—animals who are sick or injured need veterinary care, animals who are too ill to be treated should be euthanized, dogs should be exercised, cages should be cleaned, and so on. And yet, vivisectors in labs across the country violate federal law every single day.

Take this situation at Pierce College: A whistleblower has informed PETA that animals are being abused and killed in classroom laboratories by an instructor (Christa Slattery) and her students, in apparent violation of federal animal welfare regulations.

The whistleblower told us that Slattery operates her classes like a "free for all," allowing students to poke, prod, bleed, and inject animals with minimum guidance or instruction. And reportedly, when Slattery gets to the animals, it seems that she barely knows what she's doing!

The whistleblower told PETA that Slattery tried to push a large mouse into a small tube to restrain the mouse; she wondered whether the tube was too small but just shrugged her shoulders and continued to force the mouse into the tube. Minutes later, the mouse was dead.

Here's what the whistleblower had to say about the matter:

Ms. Slattery's failure to provide detailed guidance in the form of thorough instruction, science-based guidelines, and careful supervision deprives the students in her class of an opportunity to receive adequate training in animal care procedures and leaves the animals used in demonstrations open to neglect, mistreatment, and abuse.

And here's what PETA's director of laboratory investigations told the media today:

Pierce College's veterinary technician program appears to be teaching students that animals' lives don't matter. Slattery's laboratory is apparently in violation of a host of federal regulations, and we're urging the USDA to investigate and force Pierce to comply with animal protection regulations.

Posted by Grace Freidan, Researcher