Sterling|Local Event
Animal Testing Protest
Event Details
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Stephen Brown
Email: vegan.dog.runner@gmail.com
On May 30th, animal rights advocates will hold the first in a series of peaceful protests outside Charles River Laboratories, located at 55 Union Street in downtown Worcester, from noon-4.
The protestors will be calling on the company to end canine experimentation at the facility and comply with the Massachusetts Beagle Bill (MGL c. 140 § 174D½), which requires research dogs to be offered for adoption rather than killed when no longer needed for experiments.
Charles River Laboratories — the world's largest contract animal research organization — operates active canine research laboratories occupying multiple floors at 55 Union Street. The company's own website advertises "large colonies ready for study starts" and "in vivo" drug testing services at this address.
In vivo testing means live animals are dosed with pharmaceutical compounds, monitored, and killed so their organs can be examined.
Charles River is a documented buyer of beagles from Marshall BioResources, the nation's largest commercial beagle breeding facility, which has accumulated more than 20 federal Animal Welfare Act violations since 2007. The supply chain is established: Marshall breeds them, Charles River buys them, pharmaceutical companies pay for the studies, and the dogs are killed.
Massachusetts law prohibits exactly this outcome. The Beagle Bill, signed into law in 2022, requires research facilities to offer healthy dogs for adoption once their research use ends. Charles River circumvents this requirement by mandating necropsy — requiring that all dogs be killed and dissected at study's end — thereby eliminating any legal obligation to offer them for adoption. The spirit and intent of Massachusetts law is being systematically exploited by one of the most profitable contract research organizations in the world, operating in plain sight in downtown Worcester.
Charles River is currently under civil and criminal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for violations of federal monkey importation laws. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is separately investigating the company for misleading shareholders about its animal supply chain. The FDA has announced a plan to phase out animal testing requirements, calling animal models an unreliable predictor of human outcomes — with more than 90 percent of drugs that pass animal studies failing in human clinical trials.
The science is broken. The law is being ignored. The dogs are dying. And most Worcester residents have no idea any of it is happening twenty feet below street level at a downtown address they pass every day.
That ends now.
Advocates are calling on Charles River Laboratories to immediately cease canine experimentation at the Worcester facility, adopt out all current research dogs to approved rescue organizations, and end its commercial relationship with Marshall BioResources.
Worcester residents, animal welfare advocates, and members of the press are invited to join the demonstration.
All groups and all individuals welcome. Bring a sign or just bring your voice
Date: 5/30
Time: Noon-4
Location: 55 Union Street, Worcester, Mass.