Marshall BioResources has been given a penalty of $18,282 after an employee’s right hand was amputated while cleaning an industrial mixer at their breeding facilities in North Rose, New York, USA.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration conducted an investigation into the incident and concluded that Marshalls had failed to develop and implement adequate safety procedures, and to provide guarding equipment to protect the operator and other employees in the machine’s vicinity. These failures resulted in an employee’s right hand being caught in the rotating parts of a horizontal mixer.
Marshall BioResources has the largest factory farms in the U.S. for beagles and ferrets, housing over 22,000 dogs and 40,000 ferrets!! It is hard to even imagine a place with this huge number of animals.
As well as the negligence in employee safety, animal inspectors regularly find this company is violating the federal Animal Welfare Act. Breaches include; housing dogs and ferrets in filthy, decrepit wire cages in buildings which are teeming with mice and flies; failure to provide animals with adequate veterinary care; holding dogs in cages too small to stand and turn around. Marshalls breeding facilities have been the source of massive disease outbreaks amongst animals, including canine distemper and bacterial infections. Its likely these outbreaks are caused from the close confinement of highly stressed animals.
PETA is calling on two federal agencies to reconsider their business dealings with Marshall BioResources. The Department of Defence and NIH purchase animals from Marshall Farms for use in experiments, with contracts totalling $173,005 and $137,800, respectively.
For additional information regarding the PETA Case Click Here