West Hollywood : Animal Rights Plea Fails
Animal-rights activists that accuse Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of using stolen pets for experiments failed Monday to persuade West Hollywood officials to deny the hospital use of a parking lot.
The City Council offered to discuss the center’s practices with hospital officials but voted 5-0 for the parking lot permit. The hospital is just outside the city boundary in Los Angeles; the parking lot across Beverly Boulevard is in West Hollywood.
A group called Last Chance for Animals charged that the Mississippi-based dealer supplying dogs to the hospital’s research branch has stolen pets and is being investigated by federal authorities.
The hospital’s lawyer, Jeffrey S. Haber, said there is no proof that the dogs were stolen and called the discussion “inappropriate” to the business at hand.
The hospital was seeking renewal of a city permit for employee parking in the West Hollywood lot while it builds a garage nearby.
“This is a land issue. Animal issues are a whole separate thing,” said Councilwoman Babette Lang after she had questioned Haber about the hospital’s treatment of research animals.
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