I love ordering through Santa Cruz Animal Health, but just learned of this link. I also see that their Glass Door reviews are 1.9 from employees. Now I am on the fence about continuing to use them. Anyone have anymore insight?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/santa-cruz-biotechnology-fine_us_573fb4a5e4b00e09e89f2828
I don’t know about the employees. I am pretty sure the goat abuse was blown completely out of proportion by activist, as usual.
The owner of the company has some pretty nice horses, and some very happy horse trainers, if they count as employees.
Eh, reserving judgement… these things have a way of becoming “he said she said” and the facts get lost in reporting.
I have ordered research antibodies for years with no issues, and more recently natural vit E for my horse (saved me a ton of money off vs when I bought Elevate).
I plan to order from them again this summer.
these reports and photos are from USDA inspectors which are routine on facilities using regulated animals in research. Inspections are often unannounced once a facility hits the radar.
while the product ordered may have been high quality, the records and documentation of animal care has not held up.
you can go to the USDA site yourself and see documentation of inspections. This is not PITA or HSUS speaking out, this is the USDA regulators.
That one of the most widely used antibody companies gives up its position, they cave in, says a lot about their guilt
[QUOTE=Wirt;8672896]
I don’t know about the employees. I am pretty sure the goat abuse was blown completely out of proportion by activist, as usual.
The owner of the company has some pretty nice horses, and some very happy horse trainers, if they count as employees.[/QUOTE]
The APHIS documentation is pretty damning.
[QUOTE=hoopoe;8672948]
these reports and photos are from USDA inspectors which are routine on facilities using regulated animals in research. Inspections are often unannounced once a facility hits the radar.
while the product ordered may have been high quality, the records and documentation of animal care has not held up.
you can go to the USDA site yourself and see documentation of inspections. This is not PITA or HSUS speaking out, this is the USDA regulators.
That one of the most widely used antibody companies gives up its position, they cave in, says a lot about their guilt[/QUOTE]
That is the way it is supposed to work, catch those that are not following laws and regulations properly and bring them to justice.
That is what those laws, regulations, inspections and supervision are for, to insure all are doing their job properly or stop them if they don’t, be it there or any other place.
Well I cannot give my money to a company that treats it’s animals that way (and actually, I didn’t know they were involved in research ).
So now who will COTHers buy natural vitamin e from? Maybe their need to pay their fine is the reason for the big price increase?
They provide antibodies for medical research.
Either you order from them or you can’t get work done, many times, since they are often the only producers of the antibody we need.
But hey. We are not doing anything important like say, curing cancer… Nah … No dogs need to be cured… We don’t have to order from them over a news story. Nah.
[QUOTE=SendenHorse;8673191]
They provide antibodies for medical research.
Either you order from them or you can’t get work done, many times, since they are often the only producers of the antibody we need.
But hey. We are not doing anything important like say, curing cancer… Nah … No dogs need to be cured… We don’t have to order from them over a news story. Nah.[/QUOTE]
Well, looks as though it in’t going to be an option to get antibodies from them after their current inventory is exhausted:
“Respondent warrants that it possesses an inventory of blood and serum obtainedfrom its live animals on or before August 21, 2015, and has produced and could produce antibodiesand other materials and products derived from such blood and serum (The 8/21/15 Inventory).Between May 20, 2016, and December 31, 2016, respondent shall not, in commerce, deliver fortransportation, transport, sell, or negotiate the sale of any blood, serum, antibodies, materials, orproducts obtained or derived from respondent’s live animals other than the blood, serum,antibodies, materials, or products in The 8/21/15 Inventory.”
I buy natural vit E from puritans pride.
So, does this mean that they are out of business?
From the standpoint of somebody who has to feed a higher dosage of Vitamin E than most companies can provide me at a reasonable cost, that really sucks. My mare needs 8000 iu per day, and most supplements at most provide 5000 iu.
It’s a shame they were unable to properly ensure the welfare of the animals in their care, and I feel badly that animals suffered as a result. If the violations were as significant as it sounds, the company should be heavily penalized.
However, I dislike that the “news source” quoted groups such as PITA and HSUS that are against any and all research involving animals for any reason regardless of how the animals are treated and kept. This just feeds the public misconception that all research using animal models follows the Legally Blonde 2 formula of cute little puppies being locked up for entirely nonessential studies on cosmetics, rather than medical researchers trying keep fewer people (and pets!) of dying from cancer.
[QUOTE=Draftmare;8673401]
So, does this mean that they are out of business?
From the standpoint of somebody who has to feed a higher dosage of Vitamin E than most companies can provide me at a reasonable cost, that really sucks. My mare needs 8000 iu per day, and most supplements at most provide 5000 iu.[/QUOTE]
I didn’t see anything about the supplement end of their business being affected.
Wouldn’t surprise me at all if they just go that route.
Less regulation and oversight.
I wonder how it might affect the prices on the supplement business. Even the third party brands they carry are a good deal compared to many other sources.
Mice/rats are actually exempt from the animal welfare stuff for research. So any antibodies that they produce based in the serum from their blood can still be shipped.
Plus, their animal product line isn’t dependent on their antibody production. It’s basically a separate arm of the company.
[QUOTE=thehorsedream;8673698]
Mice/rats are actually exempt from the animal welfare stuff for research. So any antibodies that they produce based in the serum from their blood can still be shipped.
Plus, their animal product line isn’t dependent on their antibody production. It’s basically a separate arm of the company.[/QUOTE]
And they also are under very strict regulations, welfare ones also, that I am sure the relevant agencies will now keep a close eye on, if that company is working with them.
There is no excusing any abuse, not only for humane reasons in this case, but also because any one that abuses humans, other animals, resources, the environment, reflects badly on all of us, if we have animals or not, that abuse happens.
That is why we have all the laws and regulations we have, to prevent and/or catch any possible abuses.
What Hoopoe said. Weak sister arguments aside: they wuz got.
From a local paper …
This complaint, dated Aug. 7, alleges inspectors found “repeated failures to provide minimally adequate and expeditious veterinary care and treatment to animals,” during visits from April through August 2012. A goat in distress was killed July 7, 2015, with a bolt pistol to the forehead without euthanasia because a veterinarian was not available.
Some goats were not seen by a veterinarian for days, with some were euthanized as a result. One awaiting euthanization deteriorated for two weeks but had not been put down, according to the complaint.
The USDA alleges the company “demonstrated bad faith by misleading” inspectors about “the existence of an undisclosed location where regulated animals were housed,” which precluded their inspection.
Santa Cruz Biotech faces third USDA complaint alleging animal mistreatment
If they had hidden animals and an undisclosed location and were selling medical antibodies that’s pretty major, animal abuse aside, that’s a terribly badly run facility. I’m sure medical researchers are not to happy to hear about this at all.
I see a full audit of their FDA paperwork in the future.
Yes, there was something about 1000 animals that “went missing” and that the scientists were not happy about it. Where did they go? And that the bad treatment continued over the years… The euth by captive bolt doesn’t bother me as much since it sounds like a vet was unavailable vs the non-treatment and let it slowly die that seemed to happen more often.
The few employee reviews complained that it was like working at Walmart. Very low pay, low appreciation, and no way up. The main perk was “free bread”. The people in customer service I have spoken to have been beyond just friendly, but truly helpful and expeditious for sure. Hope they are treated better because they deserve it.
Also saw mentioned that tech was forced to post falsified reviews on their products. Just reinforces that some in management lacked much of a moral compass.
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