Laja appeared to be in terrible pain after transplant surgery, due to a sore on her thigh. Experimenters applied laundry detergent to hide her wound, and she was later killed.
PETA: PETA is demanding an immediate investigation into the UAB laboratory where the internal organs of genetically modified pigs are transplanted into baboons. The complaint follows a whistleblower report alleging a litany of violations, including that animals there endure unimaginable pain and distress because of inattentive, unqualified staff in a dangerous laboratory with shoddy and falsified record-keeping…
A pig kidney had been transplanted into Laja in January 2019. By September, she was dead. But not before the supposed “success” of her experimental surgery had been paraded — via a 33-second video —i n front of the United Therapeutics honchos who bankrolled the operation. The video shows that in June, Laja was quite thin and had lost considerable body hair as she engaged in stereotypic behavior, a sign of extreme psychological distress.
Laja’s condition worsened over time and she appeared to be in terrible pain. Fluid built up in her abdomen, and pockets of fluid collected along the ulcerated transplant surgery incision. She developed a sore on her thigh. Experimenters applied Woolite laundry detergent to both to hide the poor condition of her skin, according to the whistleblower.
By September 2019, Laja’s condition had deteriorated further, and she was euthanized. According to the whistleblower, there would have been no endpoint to the experiment had she not rejected the transplant. In other words, she would have been kept alive in spite of her suffering, just so the experimenters could collect more data…
In another experiment, a pig’s heart was transplanted into a baboon, who was then placed in an oxygen chamber. A photograph shows not only the baboon’s miserable post-operative condition but also that an intravenous tube was leaking. Within two days, the baboon had died…
The Cooper laboratory staff had a pervasive, laissez-faire attitude toward safety, according to the whistleblower. For instance… Syringes and needles were left out in the open, and one visiting staffer refused to change out of his animal facility gear when he returned to the office, potentially spreading contaminants to everyone there. Many of these concerns were brought to the attention of laboratory management, who did nothing, according to the whistleblower.
PETA is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate the whistleblower’s laundry list of potential violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act in David K.C. Cooper’s xenotransplantation laboratory, where organs are cut out of one species and implanted in another… Xenotransplantation experiments at UAB and elsewhere are pointless. Simple adjustments in government policy combined with public education would yield an increase in organ donations for human patients and better protection of the public’s health without compromising the well-being of animals…
Pigs are social, playful, protective animals who bond with each other. They’re known to dream, recognize their own names, and lead social lives of a complexity previously observed only in primates. They’ve even been seen showing empathy for other pigs who are happy or distressed. They aren’t tools for speciesist experimenters who should instead be promoting human organ donations. Please TAKE ACTION below and tell University of Alabama–Birmingham President Ray L. Watts to pull the plug on the Cooper laboratory. SOURCE…
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