Johnson & Johnson confirmed it is ending the process of demonstrating surgical devices on live animals when it trains its sales staff.
PETA, the animal rights group, is claiming victory in getting Johnson &Johnson to abandon a practice of killing live animals when demonstrating surgical devices to its sales staff.
In its letter to the company, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said it had learned from a source that the practice from would continue at a sales meeting scheduled for later this month in Cincinnati. It urged its members to contact Johnson & Johnson to protest the teaching technique.
"No salesperson needs to watch a pig bleed out and die to see how a medical device works," said PETA Senior Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "A sophisticated human-anatomy simulator--or even a simple video of a human surgery--would teach them all they need to know without harming animals."
PETA said it had received word from a source that salespeople for the Ethicon division of the company would see a surgical device demonstrated on a live pig as part of a mandatory sales training session.
In response to PETA's campaign, Johnson & Johnson later Thursday responded with a statement indicating it was moving away from the use of animals in sales demonstrations.
"The use of live animals for sales training in surgical settings has been a topic of internal discussion for quite some time. Johnson & Johnson as an enterprise - across our medical devices, pharmaceuticals and consumer products businesses - has discontinued live animal use in sales training across our North America region. Further, we are working to discontinue this practice globally by December 31, 2016," the statement said.
A company spokesman declined to confirm that PETA's information about the upcoming sales demonstration was accurate, or whether the company's overall policy had changed as a result of the PETA protest.
But the animal rights group trumpeted its success Friday, claiming thousands of its members contacted the company to protest the use of live animals during training sessions.
Johnson & Johnson's statement also said it was working with regulators to win approval of alternate testing methods, such as computer simulations.
"When it comes to the development of regulated health products in any of our businesses, where animal use is commonly required in order to ensure the safety of patients who may eventually use these products, our policies reflect animal welfare standards that meet or exceed all applicable local and national laws and regulations," the statement said.
Kathleen O'Brien may be reached at kobrien@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @OBrienLedger. Find NJ.com on Facebook.