Internationale
Infos über animal_net
[animal_net] Update on Covance exposure, 17.12.03
BUAV
Undercover Investigation Update: Covance, Germany
Following
our undercover investigation at Covance, Münster (Germany),
the Ministry of Environment in Northrhine-Westfalia has started
a procedure to withdraw Covance's license to keep and experiment
on laboratory animals.
Covance's
Münster lab reports to Covance's UK laboratory in Harrogate,
Yorkshire. Covance's US headquarters is in New Jersey. Obviously
this process has only just started, it can take weeks or months
and we fully expect Covance to challenge it. However, it is
a remarkable achievement at this stage and is a positive reflection
on the quality of material the BUAV has obtained to demonstrate
that Covance has been breaking German law.
The Ministry of Environment has also
confirmed that it believes the undercover evidence obtained
by the BUAV constitutes a breach of German Animal Welfare law
and recommends that the court authority should intervene and
start legal action against the company. As you know the BUAV
has also already asked the German authorities to initiate legal
action against Covance.
This procedure to withdraw Covance's
licence will be started by the City of Münster as the competent
authority. The Ministry was so shocked by the BUAV's footage
that it has also made a recommendation to the Government that
Covance should install surveillance cameras in its laboratory
to prevent a repetition of the type of staff abuse that the
BUAV discovered.
Wendy Higgins, Campaigns Director for
the BUAV, says: "This is fantastic news that the German
authorities have acted so swiftly to start procedures to withdraw
Covance's license and we hope that this will be shortly followed
by legal action against the company for breaking the law. We
believe that the BUAV's extraordinary evidence of animal suffering
and abuse clearly shows that Covance has been routinely breaking
both German and EU law relating to animal experiments. Our evidence
shows that, despite what the research industry tell us, monkeys
in EU labs are still suffering appalling conditions and being
subjected to unacceptable and abusive staff behaviour."
For
more information about the investigation please go to www.buav.org/covance
