Eric Kleiman: Trafficked Monkeys, the Envigo Beagles and the Many Abject Failures of the USDA

"There is this long history, and what's important about history is history informs the present. History shows this is how we got here. Fred Colston was like a villain out of central casting. I mean… it's almost like he was twirling his mustache… And he blamed me. He blamed me for bankrupting his lab. I mean, that's in documents from the federal government, not me by name, but In Defense of Animals. The thing is, at least he was honest about his viewpoints. At least he was honest to say, 'these chimpanzees, I want to raise them like cattle.' Whereas today you've got these slick PR people like Inotiv or Envigo, 'Oh, animal welfare is our highest priority.' It's the same mindset. At least he was honest about it. They're not honest anymore." – Eric Kleiman

You've probably heard of Envigo. They were the ones who owned the 4000 beagles that were rescued in Virginia last summer. The Beagles were living at a breeding facility, a breeding facility for research animals, and their conditions were so abusive and horrific that they got rescued. That doesn't happen very often. It was a big deal.

And more recently, federal prosecutors charged eight members of an international monkey smuggling ring that allegedly supplied trafficked and endangered monkeys to Envigo, Orient and Worldwide Primates.

The USDA are the people who are supposed to be at least somewhat on the side of animals in all of this. They are supposed to be doing inspections and shutting places like these down. But they're not. They're not the people who shut down Envigo and rescued all those dogs, because they're not doing their job. They've rarely done their job. And this job needs to go to someone else because animals need someone who's actually on their team.

Today's episode is about the people who are doing the work.

This conversation is with Eric Kleinman. Eric is a researcher at the Animal Welfare Institute and he knows more about this stuff than I think anyone. I'm going to warn you in advance, it's complicated and there are a lot of acronyms (one that you need to know is APHIS – Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services, a part of the USDA). It's also extremely important.

Links:

AWI: https://awionline.org/

To learn more:

https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/animals/2022/06/what-do-we-owe-former-lab-chimps

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/toothless-and-paltry-critics-slam-usda-fines-for-animal-welfare-violations

https://www.science.org/content/article/indictment-monkey-importers-could-disrupt-u-s-drug-and-vaccine-research

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/what-do-we-owe-former-lab-chimps

https://www.science.org/content/article/research-animals-mistreated-leading-supplier-animal-welfare-group-alleges

https://www.science.org/content/article/leading-breeder-beagles-research-slammed-animal-welfare-inspectors

https://www.science.org/content/article/beleaguered-beagle-facility-closes-under-government-pressure-fate-3000-dogs-unclear

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/hundreds-of-beagles-have-died-at-a-major-research-animal-breeding-facility

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/usda-accused-of-ignoring-animal-welfare-for-business-interests