Carolina Biological Supply Company

Carolina Biological Supply Company (CBSC) is the largest supplier of laboratory specimens for class room biology dissection in the United States. CBSC was founded in 1927 by Dr. Thomas E. Powell, Jr., a professor at Elon College.

Class B dealers
A 1990 investigation by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) revealed that the largest suppliers of animals for dissection depend on Class B dealers to keep their inventory stocked. Investigators documented deplorable conditions at a catteries operated by dealers John H. Wise and his cousin, Al Wise. Abusive conditions included live cats housed in filthy cages with dead cats. Al Wise sold cats to Carolina Biological Supply Company. Although CBSC facilities claimed to deal only with euthanized animals from local pounds; video revealed that deliveries of live cats (some wearing collars) were common.

Strays and feral animals are picked up by Class B dealers or "bunchers", who sell them to laboratories for vivisection (or to CBSC for dissection). An estimated 2 million animals a year are stolen in the United States, often out of their own yards in broad daylight. CBSC provides an on-line catalogue which features dead cats.

Abuses at facility
Upon arrival at CBSC, cats were shoved into gas chambers and then hooked to embalming machines; with some still visibly struggling. Undercover video footage revealed CBSC workers seizing animals with metal hooks and flinging them into over crowded gas chambers. Animals who survived gassing were embalmed through infusions of burning formaldehyde and left to die slow, painful deaths. Video also showed rats struggling in restraining racks while being embalmed alive and live crabs being injected with a chemical preservative.

USDA reporting & violations
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHI) inspectors are responsible for monitoring dealer facilities for compliance with regulations pertaining to record keeping, the physical conditions of the facilities, and the animals themselves. Copies of of these reports are available at the web site Stop Animal Experimentation Now Facility Reports and Information, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Animal Plant Health Inspection reports. However, enforcement is weak and most inspectors repeatedly allow dealers to "correct" violations. There have been many cases of the USDA taking years to act after the documentation of severe welfare violations. Dealers ordered to close down have also been known to transfer ownership of a kennel to family members. See also U.S. Department of Agriculture, section 4.

CBSC & Portland, Oregon area shelters
The National Animal Interest Alliance (NAIA) is a front group and industry lobbying organization for animal commerce and agriculture based in Portland, Oregon. Both the NAIA and CBSC have a longstanding relationship with Portland area animal shelters. In a December 2000 article in a Portland area newspaper, the The Sherwood Gazette; a CBSC spokesman admitted to purchasing dead cats from the "Oregon Humane Society and surrounding county shelters". See also National Animal Interest Alliance, section 6.

Contact
Carolina Biological Supply Company PO Box 6010 Burlington, NC 27216-6010 USA Phone: 336.584.0381 Fax: 336.584.7686 Email: internationalsales@carolina.com

Website: http://www.carolina.com/

SourceWatch articles

 * Animal testing
 * War on Animals
 * People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
 * National Animal Interest Alliance
 * U.S. animal rights legislation
 * U.S. Department of Agriculture

External articles

 * Arielle Schecter Dissection and Vivisection: Animals as Classroom Tools, Serendip, November 2006
 * New England Anti-Vivisectionist Society What You Might Not Know Specimen Acquisition, September 2000