cover image Stolen for Profit: How the Medical Establishment is Funding a National Pet-Theft Conspiracy

Stolen for Profit: How the Medical Establishment is Funding a National Pet-Theft Conspiracy

Judith Reitman. Pharos Books, $19.95 (258pp) ISBN 978-0-88687-676-0

At the outset, Reitman, a freelance journalist, makes clear that her book is not a diatribe against the use of animals in biomedical research. Rather, she attacks the illegal means by which many of the cats and dogs used in experiments are procured--the theft and misrepresentation by middlemen who sell the animals to laboratories. Often boarded in appallingly unhealthy quarters prior to their sale, the animals can fetch up to $500 apiece, despite their debilitated condition. This money is generally paid from federal grants; the Department of Agriculture has taken no action against this system. Reitman frames her powerful, unsettling expose around a 1991 California trial in which three animal suppliers drew terms of six, five and three years. Photos not seen by PW. (Feb.)