ACTION ALERT: Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! (SAEN) ~ x
Contact:
Dr. Robert Gibbens Director, Western Region, USDA
(970) 494-7478
[email protected]
[email protected]
SAMPLE MESSAGE:
Please LEVY a MAXIMUM FINE against University of California, Davis, for
their blatant disregard of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) when their
negligence killed two rabbits and a cat and injured several monkeys, and
dogs. Their behavior must NOT be tolerated and MUST be punished to the
fullest extent of the law.
UCD Admits It Has Paid $5,000 Federal
Fine for Killing Animal
By Andy Fell,
UCDavis.edu, April 23, 2018
34th Anniversary of 1st Ever U.S. Animal Rights Arrests at UCD Marked by
Admission
(From Press Release) – Nearly 34 years to the day after protestors –
claiming animals were being tortured and killed – blocked research
laboratories at the University of California, Davis regional primate center
in the first mass arrests ever in the animal rights movement.
Fifteen people were arrested on April 24, 1984 and the protests and arrests
spread nationwide. In 1987, suspected animal rights activists set a fire
that caused $4.5 million of damage and destroyed a half built UCD research
facility. The perpetrators were never caught.
Monday, UC Davis said it is negligently killing animals, admitting it
happened and negotiating with the federal government to pay a $5,000 fine
for one recent infraction, which violated the Animal Welfare Act, the only
U.S. law that is supposed to protect laboratory animals.
A national research watchdog group – with a reputation of going head-to-head
with similar research laboratories across the U.S. when they violate federal
laws to protect animals – said UC Davis is guilty of many more animal
deaths, and is lying to government regulators about it.
In fact, those claims by SAEN (Stop Animal Exploitation Now), which is based
in Ohio, were heeded by the National Institutes of Health which responded
Monday to a SAEN letter calling for the investigation by telling SAEN that
an investigation had, in fact, been opened of UC Davis.
Earlier Monday, UC Davis said it had paid a $5,000 fine– which had been
negotiated down to a lesser amount – for killing a rabbit. The admission
proved that SAEN – and maybe those protestors in 1984 – may well be right:
UC Davis is torturing and killing animals.
UC Davis statement:
https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/uc-davis-settles-animal-welfare-citation
In a news release, SAEN charged that UC Davis may have “hidden even more NEW
animal deaths from regulators.”
“Laboratories receiving federal funding are required (under PHS Policy,
IV.F.3) to report all animal welfare related incidents to the Office of
Laboratory Animal Welfare of the NIH. Under that federal law, all
non-compliances discovered internally by the UCD administration should have
been reported to OLAW, if only to inform them of remediation methods. But
UCD apparently did not do so,” said SAEN.
SAEN said internal UCD documents that were never meant to be made public
“reveal at least five late 2017 incidents involving animal deaths and
injuries which were not reported to OLAW. According to the internal reports
three mice, two rabbits and a cat died. A monkey and several dogs were
unnecessarily injured.”
In a letter to the NIH, SAEN urged NIH/OLAW to launch a federal
investigation of the cover-up, and revoke UCD’s Animal Welfare Assurance.
SAEN said revocation of UCD’s Animal Welfare Assurance would make the
laboratory ineligible to receive federal funding, costing the facility $110
million in active NIH federal grants.
“The fine announced today is paltry, and has not deterred UC Davis from
continuing to break the law,” said Michael Budkie, SAEN executive director.
“This lab has killed multiple animals in the months immediately following
the $5,000 USDA fine. Two more rabbits and a cat have died.”
“If there had been only one incident of non-compliance, it might be possible
to assume that it was simply overlooked. However, there are five separate
incidents, all of which are serious. The only conclusion that can be drawn
is that the University of California, Davis has engaged in a consistent and
deliberate pattern of non-reporting. This is nothing short of an intentional
cover-up,” said Budkie in his letter to Dr. Patricia A. Brown (Director of
OLAW) and Dr. Francis Collins (Director of the NIH).
SAEN’s letter to the NIH and the relevant internal UCD reports –
http://www.saenonline.org/media-University-of-California-Davis-NIH-Complaint-4-23-18.html
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