In a 2015 report, there is a reference to rabbits exhibiting head tilt and a description of thick yellow discharge coming from their eyes. Conditions like head tilts and eye discharge could indicate respiratory infections, bacterial infections, parasitic infections, traumas, and abscesses.
JW AUGUST: ‘A lab that uses animals for research has been the subject of a series of critical reports by inspectors from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The lab is called ProSci Inc., a $10 million-a-year Poway biotech business specializing in antibody production. While its office is in Poway, it keeps its lab animals in corrals, pens, cages, and barns in Ramona, according to business records. The company creates antibodies for researchers, including those in academia, the private sector, and the government…
There is a growing chorus of researchers and academics who claim creating antibodies from animals’ blood, first done in 1901, is outmoded science and often cruel to the animals. The treatment of animals is what’s at the heart of the USDA inspections of ProSci. Among the animals ProSci works with are rabbits, llamas, goats and cattle. NBC 7 Investigates reviewed inspection reports, from 2015 up to the current year, with several experts in animal care and research, all of whom expressed alarm at what they saw in the reports.
Among them was Kathleen Conlee, an expert on animal research issues at the Humane Society of the United States. Her initial response was that she “was shocked at the range of problems at the facility.” In a series of responses to our questions the company told us whenever there is a problem, they address it immediately, taking corrective action as called for. Echoing Conlee’s concerns was Dr. Ingrid Taylor, a veterinarian for 12 years as well as a researcher for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). She too reviewed the USDA inspection reports.
For example, in a July 15, 2015 report, she notes there is a reference to rabbits exhibiting what’s called head tilt and a description of thick yellow discharge coming from their eyes. Said Dr. Taylor, “Conditions like head tilts and eye discharge could indicate respiratory infections, bacterial infections, parasitic infections, traumas, and abscesses.” The veterinarian also notes that photographs from a 2015 and a 2016 inspection show how closely confined the rabbits are in wire cages. “The cages are only large enough for them to be able to turn around and lay down in them,” she said’. SOURCE…
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