A Davis laboratory has been feeling the wrath of an animal rights group after five of its alpacas died last July.
Antibodies Incorporated in Davis said in its report that the animals were accidentally exposed to oleander leaves, a poisonous plant.
“Which are highly toxic, not only to animals but also to people,” said Michael Budkie, Co-Founder of Stop Animal Exploitation Now, an animal rights group out of Ohio.
Budkie was able to obtain the report from the National Institutes of Health through the Freedom of Information Act.
“One of the staff persons at Antibodies Incorporated was making a burn pile,” Budkie said.
An employee brought in materials from off the property to put in that burn pile, and one the alpacas were able to eat from it. That’s where the report says the oleander leaves were later found.
“Anyone that deals with animals, especially alpacas, who are grazers, they eat plants, should know better than to pile potentially poisonous clippings,” Budkie said.
FOX40 attempted to speak with Antibodies Incorporated but they were closed.
Meanwhile, Budkie says he is sending that report to the USDA along with a letter asking Antibodies Incorporated be fined the maximum $10,000 per animal, totaling $50,000.
“We filed our complaint because we have no information that even demonstrated that the USDA was aware of this,” Budkie said.
SAEN admits its ultimate goal is to shut down all laboratories that do testings on animals, including the Antibodies Incorporated facility.
“Right now, the diseases that are killing human beings are specifically human conditions,” Budkie said.
Just last year SAEN worked to shut down another Northern California antibodies firm. Santa Cruz Biotech was forced out of the business after the company was hit with a $3.5 million fine over its treatment of goats and rabbits. It also had to give up its license under the Animal Welfare Act.
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