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USDA cites animal research center
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by Ken Harris
Thursday, January 24, 2008
The United States Department of Agriculture cited University of Wisconsin Research Animal Resource Center in early 2007 with multiple violations of federal law regarding treatment of animals used for research.
According to USDA inspection reports dated June 20, 2007 obtained by The Badger Herald, UW violated a number of USDA regulations ranging from failure to repaint rooms to not providing animals with analgesics.
The documents state a USDA inspector found UW failed to report 59 dogs, six calves and two lambs it had purchased. The reports also say the university did not monitor animals often enough after showing disease, did not report all disease to staff veterinarians and provided overly vague descriptions of the experiments performed on the animals.
The report also finds UW provided no legitimate reason for not using painkillers on animals involved in painful experiments.
Michael Budkie, executive director of Stop Animal Exploitation Now, a group that fights experimentation on animals, said the UW Research Animal Resources Center needs more government surveillance. He added he was especially worried about UW’s failure to report all of its animals.
“They can’t even get the numbers right,” Budkie said. “It makes us wonder what else might be wrong.”
The reports show a variance in time allowed to resolve each situation from “immediately” to just requiring an overall change in wording of UW protocol. The reports do not mention any possible fines.
Budkie added UW has not been fined yet because the process of assessing and levying fines takes several years. He added the experiments were “just about useless to human health” because the entire program had lost its credibility.
“If they’re not following their own protocol, how do we know they’re following any part of the protocol,” Budkie said. “What else are they lying about?”
According to Budkie, the reports only cover the first half of 2007, and SAEN is in the process of obtaining the records for the second half of the year.
Terry Devitt, UW director of research communication, said he doesn’t know enough about the situation to comment at this time. It is unknown whether UW has addressed the problems. Eric Sandgren, director of UW Research Animal Resources Center, did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday.
Anonymous (January 24, 2008 @ 9:23am):
Animals really do suffer at our labs and all the other employees of the research labs have to know that...
Anonymous (January 24, 2008 @ 9:30am):
When it was discovered that Ei Terasawa had been cited by the USDA for multiple violations of the Animal Welfare Act in connection with her push-pull perfusion experiments on the brains of awake monkeys, the university and Eric Sandgren (the current RARC director) promised to never again let media be the source of news concerning animal welfare violations -- they swore that from then on that the university itself would pro-actively announce and explain any shortcoming discovered during USDA inspections.
Clearly, this was just posturing. Psychopaths are geniuses at manipulating others' impressions; psychopaths fein sanity and a concern for others. Is it any surprise that animal research labs are so overwhelming populated by those who take no responsibility for their actions, who hurt others every day, who preen and posture about their own importance and the importance of their work, in the face of decades of failure?
The history of such violations at the UW is a very long one, and such violations will continue ad infinitum until the labs are closed.
Anonymous (January 24, 2008 @ 11:24am):
its bittersweet to learn about these things. of course its horrible to see these creatures being treated so poorly and to see them in cages at all, yet slowly this information is streaming into the publics attention. if you dont like what you hear, get angry, and turn that energy into action! this is happening all over the world-these are NOT isolated occurrences. right here in campus, over 2000 monkeys are caged. if we dont speak out now, nothing will change.
Anonymous (January 24, 2008 @ 12:27pm):
UW really does have a callous attitude towards animals... I was even taught in an undergrad psych class by my professor to not name my rat or even ask to take it home at the end of the study - they were all going to be needlessly killed. Completely needlessly. When I was sad about this, the professor, outlandishly enough, said that rats don't feel pain and I'll learn better with time. This is someone who has a Ph.D and has probably had a phsyiology class or two, I would've thought.
My peers seemed to also quietly dismiss my sadness because I'm just one of those overly sentimental women who shouldn't be in the sciences...
Anonymous (August 5, 2008 @ 1:27am):
We need to elect different representatives, senators, and presidents or there will never be any improvement for these animals. We need to stand up and speak for them, they should not have to endure pain and suffering at the hands of scientists. It's the taxpayers money that fund's most of these grants.
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