Stop Covance Animal Testing Lab from Coming to Chandler, Arizona!

To:  Mayor Boyd W. Dunn and The Chandler City Council

Covance Laboratories—one of the world’s largest animal-testing laboratories, the world’s largest breeder of dogs for experiments, and one of the biggest importers of wild-caught monkeys into the United States—is planning to build a new testing facility in Chandler, Arizona. We need your help to stop this project in its tracks!

Earlier this year, PETA went public with an 11-month investigation inside a Covance laboratory in Vienna, Virginia—documenting appalling physical and psychological abuse of monkeys. Video footage shot inside Covance was described by a U.K. judge as being “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 which he said “cry out for explanation.”

Indeed, Covance has a lot of explaining to do—from the hundreds of violations of the Animal Welfare Act documented by PETA’s investigator to the sloppy business practices noted in its violations of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to problems ensuring safety of its workers and its host community (in 1989, when Covance was known as Hazleton Labs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a tactical medical military team outfitted in biohazard suits had to enter the lab, kill all the animals, and seal the facility as Ebola virus had been discovered in sick monkeys brought in by the laboratory from the Philippines)—and it does not deserve a red carpet welcome into Chandler.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned