AN OPEN LETTER TO CHARLES RIVER LABORATORIES 
CEO BIRGIT GIRSHICK

Dear Ms. Girshick,

I am asking you, on behalf of dog lovers everywhere, to please stop canine experiments at 55 Union Street, immediately.

Stop what is already underway. Cancel what is pending. Adopt out all the dogs inside with the help of verified rescue groups, fosters and adopters. They are waiting, I promise you. Please. Let those beagles go to loving homes.

The science and the law is moving away from animal testing, and more importantly so is public opinion. The emerging field of New Approach Methodologies represents the next generation of humane biomedical research. These are not fringe ideas. They are where the science, law and moral compass of the country are pointing. And they require exactly the kind of highly skilled, well-compensated workforce that Massachusetts already cultivates.

The academic infrastructure at MIT, Harvard, Tufts, and UMass, combined with one of the densest biotech corridors in the world, makes this Commonwealth the natural home for that evolution.

Imagine a facility in Worcester that once housed research dogs becoming a center for cutting-edge, human-relevant science — the animals retired to loving homes, the workforce retrained into higher-skill roles, and Massachusetts planting its flag at the frontier of twenty-first century medicine. That is a story worth telling. It is a legacy worth building. The reputational repair alone from such a move would be staggering.

But more than strategy, more than brand,  more than simple business acumen — this is simply the right thing to do for those dogs.

We are asking, please let those dogs go.

 Chip