U.S. Meat Animal Research Center's Death Pit

James Keen, a former scientist/veterinarian at the U. S. Meat Animal Research Center notified the New York Times a year ago that the Nebraska site's cows, pigs, and sheep were subjected to painful, unnecessary experiments that caused crippling ailments and death.

The center, operating under Agriculture Department purview, is exempt from the Animal Welfare Act  which means that the center's personnel may conduct any manner of experiments on its test animals without regard to their suffering.

Freedom of Information documents obtained by the Times verified Dr. Keen's complaints regarding animal mistreatment at the U. S. Meat Animal Research Center. Examples of cruelty cited by the newspaper: animals undergoing surgery without anesthesia, pigs and cows placed in steam chambers, newborn lambs left in deadly environments and pigs held in claustrophobic quarters. Animals who do not survive the experiments are disposed of in the facility's death pit.

The Times exposé may affect change for these hapless animals.