To the Editor:I am a graduating senior leaving campus this December. I have been an active member of the Student Organization for Animal Rights since 2001 and have helped achieve many goals on campus. I worked on a successful campaign to improve the amount of animal-friendly foods available on campus. I also spent a great deal of time working with the biology department to help create a student choice policy so that those ethically opposed to the dissection of animals are not required to perform such action. I’ve even met with the administration about the inhumanity of the sticky mouse traps used in our dorm halls. I have worked on many important animal rights issues at the University, and I have never before written a letter to the editor of the school newspaper. Now, in these final weeks before I leave, I am compelled to do so. This doesn’t mean I was less passionate about the issues I’ve worked on in the past. It means that I’m taking this one personally.I just received a letter from the office of President Steward Rabinowitz regarding the speaker for my graduation ceremony. The letter detailed the many accomplishments of Dr. Colin Goddard, but neglected to mention the one glaring offense on his resume. Goddard contributes to the deaths of 500 animals every single day.Goddard is not only the chief executive officer of OSI pharmaceuticals, he is also on the board of directors for Glaxo Smith Kline. Glaxo Smith Kline is a member of a rapidly dwindling group of corporations that are the lifeblood of a company known as Huntingdon Life Sciences. HLS is the third largest animal testing facility in the world, and a long-standing target for the animal rights community as a result of their infamous cruelty and inhumanity. Goddard has been informed of HLS’s record of animal abuse. He has even received multiple visits to his home from animal rights activists to politely request that he do something to end his company’s support for HLS’s inhumane practices.Among the 500 animals killed at HLS daily are cats, rabbits and beagle puppies. HLS uses beagle puppies because they are an incredibly docile breed. A baby beagle can be tortured and abused and it will never bite back; they remain loyal to their torturers to the very end.Many HLS employees have been criminally charged with animal cruelty, and HLS has been cited on animal welfare violations numerous times, but to such a large corporation, these tiny fines are too inconsequential to initiate reform. One infamous HLS employee once cut out the eyes of a beagle puppy and mailed them to a woman he was stalking with a note that read, “I only have eyes for you.” An undercover investigation provides video footage of workers inside HLS punching beagle puppies in the face because their veins were too small to receive injections due to their young age. Another undercover video shows HLS employees using scissors to cut open the chest cavity of a living primate without the use of anesthetics. The exposed heart can be seen still beating while the animal writhes in pain. I should reiterate that Goddard has been sent these videos, as well as the documentation for the investigations. The animals are forced to live in cages with their own vomit and feces. One undercover investigator was told specifically not to interact with the dogs or to give them any friendly attention. Along with being a leader in animal cruelty, HLS has time and time again produced faulty science. HLS is responsible for putting drugs like Vioxx on the market. HLS killed hundreds of animals to deem Vioxx safe, only to see the drug recalled for causing the deaths of at least 40 humans. This is not the only time that HLS has marketed deadly drugs. HLS is also responsible for putting Celexa and Lexapro on the market, two anti-depression drugs that actually caused increased suicidal and homicidal tendencies in many who were prescribed the drug. HLS employees have even been quoted as saying their tests are only reliable about 5 to 25 percent of the time.Even worse than the workers thinking that their tests are not adequate is the common knowledge that the workers themselves are not adequate. Most of the employees at HLS have less than a bachelor’s degree in their field. Many have been found to have criminal records. Perhaps HLS hires these employees to conduct its faulty experiments because it is well aware that anyone else should know better.HLS is a laboratory that primarily tests pesticides, toothpastes, beauty products and household cleaning products. It is not responsible for medical advances. It often re-test products that are already on the market and do not need to be tested by FDA regulations. The company is a contract lab, which means that corporations use them to test a product and find a desired result. This means if HLS does not find the results that it was contracted to find — HLS does not get paid. This leads to the practice of testing a product on one species of animal after another until the product is finally “proven” safe by the species with the highest survival rate. HLS is responsible for falsified data and toying with not only the lives of animals, but also those of human beings.I am furious that I will be forced to share my graduation with a man who contributes so readily to these horrors. Goddard is well aware of HLS’s crimes. He is well aware of the role his company plays in these crimes. As a member of the board of directors for Glaxo Smith Kline, Goddard is well aware that he holds the power to help end the suffering of animals and human beings alike by refusing to do business with such a notoriously abhorrent company. But instead, he ignores the facts and remains quietly complicit.For further information please check out www.insidehls.com, www.shacamerica.net and www.huntingdonsucks.com.

Ashamed to attend my own graduation,Laura Lungarelli