Charles River Laboratories plans to open another test facility in Reno, this one employing around 800 to 900 people and thousands of animals in preclinical research.
It's fascinating, when you consider the amount of red-tape a facility like this should have gone through to initiate a second base of operations in the Truckee Meadows, that media coverage is virtually nil. The link above is an rgj featured blogger, but not an "official" rgj column... apparently that article has yet to be published. And I find that fascinating, in this news-starved town, where regular calls from reporters seeking mere tidbits from the companies I've worked with have been de rigeur, someone wouldn't pick this potentially volatile and certainly emotional issue and really run with it.
I'll say it frankly: I do not support animal testing. I believe there are a wide variety of alternatives to animal testing that have proven enormously successful in the prevention and treatment of human disease and prolonging life. We do not have to choose to make trade-offs when it comes to the quality of human life or animal life. This amazing planet of ours is made to sustain both. We are built to inquire, to innovate, to analyze and to be creative. It is in our DNA to ask impossible questions and discover the answers. And we need not choose to harm in the course of that exploration.
The kind of community I want to live in does not choose dollars over ethics. When our city council and city planners make unacceptable trade-offs that jeopardize our environment and the quality of life we want to have, it is the responsibility of each of us to let them know.
It is my position that Charles River Laboratories should never have been invited to open their Sparks location, and they should not be permitted to open another in Reno.
Friday, September 28, 2007
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