Sea Shepherd At university, Pacheco organized campaigns against the use of
leghold traps and
castrating pigs and cattle without anesthetic. Guillermo writes that, as Ohio is an agricultural state, his activism met with stiff opposition and the occasional anonymous telephone call threatening to blow his head off. He discovered that, when motivated by extreme hunger or the desire to avoid electric shock, they could be induced to use their deafferented limbs. The research led in part to the discovery of
neuroplasticity within the primate motor system and a new therapy for stroke victims called
constraint-induced movement therapy that helped restore the use of affected limbs. Pacheco reported Taub for violations of animal cruelty laws based on the animals' living conditions. Police raided the lab, seized the monkeys and charged Taub with 119 counts of animal cruelty and failure to provide adequate veterinary care, the first such charges brought in the United States against a research scientist. 113 charges were dismissed at the first court hearing. Taub was initially convicted on six misdemeanor counts of failure to provide adequate veterinary care. Five convictions were dismissed after a second trial, and the final conviction was overturned on appeal when the court ruled that Maryland's Prevention of Cruelty to Animals law did not apply to researchers. The legal battle for custody of the monkeys, following their removal by PETA, reached the
United States Supreme Court. It was the first animal-rights case to do so, though the newly formed PETA ultimately failed in its battle to secure the animals' release. The proceedings, which lasted years, generated a large amount of publicity for PETA, transforming it from what Ingrid Newkirk called "five people in a basement" into a national movement. As a result of the case, the
House of Representatives Subcommittee on Science, Research and Technology held hearings that led to the 1985 Animal Welfare Act, and in 1986 changes in
United States Public Health Service guidelines for animals used in
animal research included a requirement that each institution seeking federal funding have an
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee whose job it is to oversee how laboratory animals within that institution are cared for.
Dogs at Pentagon wound lab In July 1983,
The New York Times reported that Pacheco was responsible for
Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger halting
Pentagon plans to shoot dogs in a "wound laboratory" at a military medical facility near Washington, D.C. Pacheco had learned about the project and notified both Congress and
The Washington Post. Weinberger had a collie, and when he read the article, he immediately banned the use of dogs in the experiments. Two days later, he also ordered the Pentagon to review the plans and suspend the shooting of pigs, goats, and other animals until the review was completed. Pacheco continued to raise public awareness of the issue through protests. He also worked with Congressional contacts and the media in order to convince the military to make the change permanent and include other facilities and other species. In November 1983, Congressional representatives instructed the Defense Department not to use dogs and cats in any wound laboratories, and the policy went into effect in January 1984. In late 1984, after continued public pressure and completion of the review ordered by Secretary Weinberger, the secretaries of the Army and Air Force banned the use of dogs and cats not just in wound labs, but in all biomedical and clinical research under their control.
Horse slaughter in Texas In late 1983, Pacheco went to Falls County, Texas, to investigate reports of horses dying in fields. At least 14,000 horses had been gathered by a company called Horses Unlimited, which planned to fatten them for slaughter and sale in Europe as horsemeat. Instead, 2,000 horses died of starvation, and one third of the rest suffered from severe malnutrition. Pacheco and others tried to aid the horses but were threatened with arrest by Falls County authorities, PETA told reporters. He took his investigation and evidence of cruelty to the national media in early 1984. State investigators called it "one of the biggest cases of animal abuse in the state's history", and
Jacy Reese Anthis described it as "the first modern undercover investigation of farmed animal abuse" in his 2018 book
The End of Animal Farming. As a result of his efforts, Pacheco was brought before a grand jury on criminal charges. He was represented by well-known defense attorney Richard "Racehorse" Haynes, and the charges were dropped. The same month, the slaughter operation closed down permanently.
Pennsylvania head injury lab's baboon experiments In May 1984, Pacheco compiled a 30-minute video called
Unnecessary Fuss based on 60 hours of videotapes taken from the Pennsylvania Head Injury Lab by the underground organization
Animal Liberation Front. The videos, made by the researchers, showed baboons receiving severe head and neck injuries from a head-acceleration machine. The videos also included footage of the researchers laughing at injured, brain-damaged animals. After nearly a year of other efforts to stop the federal government from continuing to fund this laboratory, in July 1985 Pacheco led approximately 100 activists in a sit-in at the headquarters of the National Institutes of Health, the federal agency funding the experiments. The sit-in lasted 4 days, after which Secretary of Health and Human Services
Margaret Heckler publicly announced the termination of funding for the $14 million Head Injury Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania.
Testing on animals; declining sales of fur During his 20-year tenure as chairman of PETA, Pacheco was involved in bringing public attention to the way animals are treated in cosmetic tests and in urging companies to abandon this practice. These campaigns resulted in major companies such as
Avon,
Revlon, and
Benetton ending animal tests on products sold in the U.S., and hundreds of other companies pledging to do the same. He was also involved in informing the public about the treatment of animals used for fur. The publicity by PETA was considered by the media, the public, and some in the fur industry to have caused a decline in fur sales.
Spokesperson for the Animal Liberation Front Pacheco was the subject of grand jury investigations because he sometimes obtained information from, and served as the spokesperson for, the underground Animal Liberation Front, which broke into animal facilities to remove animals, gather evidence of cruelty, and sometimes damage laboratory equipment.
600 Million Dogs In 2010, Alex Pacheco founded 600 Million Dogs with the mission to develop safe veterinary formulas to permanently end the number one cause of suffering and death for dogs and cats worldwide—dog and cat overpopulation. The first formulas in development are Spay and Neuter Cookies, which are being designed to safely sterilize strays—without surgery. The objective is to end the cycle of suffering for the tens of millions of stray cats in the U.S. and end the cycle of suffering for the 600 million stray dogs worldwide, who give birth to over one billion stray pups each year. The organization is also dedicated to alleviating the plight of the 29 million people who are treated for
rabies each year, and preventing the deaths of the 59,000 people who die from rabies each year. ==Awards==