Breaking: Activist Locked to Construction Equipment at University of Washington to Stop Underground Lab

from No New Animal Lab

Seattle, WA—Early this morning, an activist climbed to the top of an excavator and stopped construction on the site of the proposed Animal Research and Care Facility at the University of Washington. He is currently locked to the hydrolic lift at the top of the piece of heavy equipment, from which he has hung a banner reading, “YOU WILL NOT BUILD THIS LAB.”

Today’s action is part of the ongoing No New Animal Lab campaign, an international effort to stop the construction of the Animal Research and Care Facility (ARCF). If built, it will expand the number of animals that the University of Washington can use and kill in research by thousands. The campaign is pressuring UW, construction manager Skanska USA, and excavation subcontractor Northwest Construction to terminate all plans to continue building the ARCF. People in over a dozen U.S. and Eurpoean cities are participating in the campaign with protests against Skanska offices and executives. Recently, (APRIL 25TH) approximately 500 members of the public converged at the UW for a march through campus and the streets of Seattle.

The University of Washington’s history of using animals in research includes being fined by the USDA for allowing a primate to starve to death, citations for performing unauthorized experiments on primates, and evidence of primates engaging in self-mutilation. The UW uses and kills thousands of animals—primates, dogs, mice, pigs, rabbits, cats, and others—each year, even though animal labs throughout the world have been shutting down due to public pressure, citations for the abuse and neglect of animals, activists’ exposure of the horrific conditions of labs, and a realization that the future of science is in innovative methods that produce more accurate results than using animals.

The plans for the ARCF have generated new controversy surrounding the UW’s use of animals in research, and the No New Animal Lab campaign has grown to represent international opposition to the ARCF. Additionally, the UW Regents illegally approved the construction of the ARCF (The Regents were recently found to have violated Washington’s Open Public Meetings Act twenty-four times for having secret meetings.), and the opposition to the facility continues to mount.

“These animals feel pain, they feel fear, and their lives are spent confined in cages or as tools in cruel experiments,” says Oliver McCaughran, the activist locked to the excavator. “Animals are not commodities; they are not for our use. I cannot stand by in silence and allow the abuse of innocent lives to continue. This lab cannot be built.”

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