Thousands of goats and rabbits have been found severely neglected with hundreds more being hidden from inspectors in a California biotech animal abuse case. A federal investigation is under way into serious animal cruelty claims against Santa Cruz Biotechnology lab which creates antibodies from animal blood, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to hold a hearing on the case.
Among the horrific abuse claims are a goat with an untreated coyote bite, another with severe malnutrition and a facial tumor after being bitten by a rattlesnake, and another left dying of treatable pneumonia.
These were just a few of the two dozen individual cruelty cases that inspectors happened to find upon inspection on a single day; it’s hard to imagine how many animals have suffered similar fates over the years.
While the inspection team were there, they also witnessed one sick goat being shot in the head with a bolt gun because it was ill and there was no vet available to give treatment. This is not the only allegation of animals dying at the facility due to lack of veterinary care.
On top of these individual cruelty cases which have been filled, a tip-off from an ex facility vet led to the discovery of an entire barn full of sick and ill goats which had been deliberately hidden from USDA inspectors for years. This discovery alone should have been enough to shut the facility down, yet little action has been taken up until now. Something MUST be done.
