Harlan Sprague Dawley Inc. is one of the world's leading suppliers of animals and other services to laboratories for the purpose of animal testing

Animal testing

Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments. Worldwide it is estimated that the number of vertebrate animals—from zebrafish to non-human primates—ranges from the tens of millions to more than 100 million...

. Harlan describes itself as a global provider of pre-clinical research tools and services for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agrochemicals, industrial chemical, and food industries.

The company is based in Indianapolis

Indianapolis

Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...

 in the United States, and has branches in the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Israel, Mexico, and Scandinavia. It was founded in 1931.

Harlan UK

Harlan UK Ltd. is the British arm of Harlan Sprague Dawley Inc. It has an annual turnover of £6.6 million, according to the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection

British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection

The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection is a British animal protection and advocacy group that campaigns for the abolition of all animal experiments...

 (BUAV). The company supplies marmosets, beagles, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, mice, gerbils, and hamsters, as well as hybrid, mutant, and transgenic animals. Its brochure says it supplies more stocks and strains of lab animals than any other commercial supplier in the world. BUAV writes that the company breeds around 450 baby marmoset

Marmoset

Marmosets are the 22 New World monkey species of the genera Callithrix, Cebuella, Callibella, and Mico. All four genera are part of the biological family Callitrichidae. The term marmoset is also used in reference to the Goeldi's Monkey, Callimico goeldii, which is closely related.Most marmosets...

 monkeys a year, selling them to laboratories around Europe for £1,000 each.

A target for activists

Harlan is a target of animal rights activists, and the group Animal Liberation Front

Animal Liberation Front

The Animal Liberation Front is an international, underground leaderless resistance that engages in illegal direct action in pursuit of animal liberation...

 has raided Harlan Interfauna removing animals and stealing documents. For one raid in 1990, during which 82 beagles and 26 rabbits were stolen, John Curtin and Danny Attwood were convicted and sentenced to nine months and 18 months in prison respectively.

In 2006, over 1,000 animals, including 25 macaque

Macaque

The macaques constitute a genus of Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. - Description :Aside from humans , the macaques are the most widespread primate genus, ranging from Japan to Afghanistan and, in the case of the barbary macaque, to North Africa...

monkeys were removed from Harlan in Correzzana, Italy, with computers and equipment smashed, by the Animal Liberation Front in Italy.