University
of Wisconsin officials responded Thursday to allegations that the university
was cited for mistreating animals used for research.

Eric
Sandgren, director of UW Research Animals Resource Center, said the inspection
reports obtained by Stop Animal Exploitation Now were routine documents, and
the university receives multiple similar reports every year.

According
to Sandgren, UW is inspected every year by the United States Department of
Agriculture for ?quality control.?

?The USDA
tells us what we could be doing better,? Sandgren said. ?It doesn?t necessarily
mean we?ve broken the law.?

Sandgren
said the concerns USDA had with UW simply involved the level of detail provided
in two of the protocols used.

Sandgren said
protocols are the descriptions of how animals will be used by researchers, who
must get their protocol approved by UW?s Institutional Animal Care and Use
Committee before they can begin any experiments.

Michael
Budkie, executive director of SAEN, said UW failed to give a scientific reason
for not giving painkillers to animals involved in painful experiments and that the
university was ?not following their own protocol.?

?What else
are they lying about?? Budkie said.

According
to Sandgren, there was a legitimate reason for not giving the animals
painkillers. ?There were scientific reasons; it?s just that we did not have
them in the protocol,? Sandgren said.

The same
protocol did not mention the neutering procedure of neutered cats. Sandgren
said this was not included in the protocol because it was done for clinical
reasons, not experimental ones. He said the cats were neutered because they
were housed together to be in a social setting.

Sandgren
said all work was stopped after the inspections until the protocols were
amended. In addition, he added, the lines of communication between researchers
and lab animal veterinarians have been improved to ensure everything is
properly recorded and reported.

According
to Sandgren, all the concerns on the June 2007 report have been addressed and
reinspected by the USDA.

?They
complimented us on the job we had done,? Sandgren said. ?They thought we
addressed it very well.?

Sandgren
said no process that involves working with animals or humans is perfect. He
said the inspection reports are very useful to UW.

?We use
them as tools,? Sandgren said. ?[Budkie] uses them as statements to condemn
us.?