Another random source animal dealer has shut down. Chestnut Grove Kennel, whose owners were charged with conspiracy and fraud, closed its doors in September, and will no longer be selling dogs and cats to research. There are now only eight random source Class B dealers operating in the U.S. But we still need your help to ban all random source Class B dealers! Selling dogs and cats from random sources, such as pounds and shelters, to laboratories has been a hot-button issue for the past several years, and rightfully so. In 2009, the National Academies released a report stating that animals from random source Class B dealers are not needed in federal research, and last year, an audit of USDA’s oversight of Class B dealers concluded that the agency is failing to adequately monitor their activities. This issue is especially under debate in Michigan. A local paper, the Gratiot County Herald, recently ran a five-part series about the controversy surrounding the use of shelter animals in research, and specifically focused on R&R Research, a particularly notorious random source dealer based in Michigan that has been cited eight times since 2007 for illegally obtaining animals. Additionally, earlier this year, Wood TV 8, a local Michigan news station, ran an excellent investigative report entitled “Who is Policing Animal Safety?”, which focused on R&R Research, its illegal acquisition of dogs and cats, and USDA’s failure to close it down. All these points reinforce what AAVS and animal advocates have long known: random source Class B dealers profit from animal suffering. USDA is charged to uphold the Animal Welfare Act, yet it is failing to do so, and Congress has the legislative authority to outlaw random source Class B dealers, but remains mired in inertia. What you can do! 1. Please use the form below to contact Chester Gipson, DVM, the Deputy Administrator of Animal Care at USDA, and ask that the agency immediately revoke R&R Research’s Class B dealer license. Remind USDA that R&R has repeatedly committed serious AWA violations. 2. Also, please contact your Representative and urge him/her to spare America’s dogs and cats from a life in research laboratories by supporting the Pet Safety and Protection Act (H.R. 2256), legislation that would ban random source Class B dealers.
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