Even though a modern, humane non-animal method has been approved by the U.S. government for more than four years, the Colorado Serum Company (CSC) continues to use thousands of hamsters for leptospirosis vaccine potency tests.
In the test used for leptospirosis vaccines, hamsters are injected with the live bacteria that cause this disease. This experiment, which can last up to five weeks, causes hamsters to experience such painful conditions as blood poisoning and kidney damage before dying—and all without receiving any pain relief.
Since 2006, the CSC has killed more than 1,800 hamsters in these painful tests that end in death for all hamsters involved. Shockingly, the CSC appears not even to have done a literature search for a replacement test, which is required by the Animal Welfare Act. Instead, the CSC apparently just copied and pasted outdated information to support its incorrect claim that there were no alternatives to the use of animals.
PETA has therefore filed a complaint with the government requesting an investigation into the CSC's apparent violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
Please take a moment to contact the Colorado Serum Company and politely insist that it take the simple step of ending its use of the archaic and inhumane hamster test.
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