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Dr. Jay L. Hess, Dean,Report documents new animal violations
at IU
By Michael Reschke,
Herald Times Online, July 25, 2018
An animal rights group says three noncompliance reports from January show
Indiana University is not serious about caring for rats and mice in its
labs. The reports document, among other things, the death of four rats as a
result of food and water deprivation.
Employees who forgot to feed mice were among the violations included in a
batch of 17 noncompliance reports IU submitted to the National Institutes of
Health's Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare from April 2016 to October
2017.
The Ohio-based Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! or SAEN, shared the earlier reports with media outlets in May. At the time, IU released a statement saying all cited incidents were self-reported, demonstrating diligence in monitoring and that the university took corrective action when necessary. Michael Budkie, executive director of SAEN, said this week the reports from January show IU was not sincere.
"Those statements about monitoring animals and trying to correct the
problems were clearly nothing more than public relations," he said. "Because
if IU had done anything meaningful as those incidents occurred, then there
would have been no new reports to find."
IU spokesman Chuck Carney confirmed the reports are legitimate and were
obtained through public record requests. On Tuesday he again stressed that
each violation was self-reported and that the university takes the incidents
seriously.
"Anytime an accident like this happens, it spurs an action in our labs to make sure these processes get better," Carney said. "Would I say that it is perfect right now? No, but it's something we're constantly working on."
The reports from January show 19 rats were found without food and 14 rats
were found without water in IU School of Medicine labs. None of those rats
died, but four other rats did when an incorrectly docked cage prevented them
from accessing food and water. The staff member responsible for the four
deaths has had other performance issues in the past and was referred to IU
Human Resources, according to one of the reports.
Violations cited in the third report from January included unapproved ear
notching and toe clipping on adult mice. Institutional Animal Care and Use
Committee members were "very concerned with the magnitude" of those
violations and requested all individuals responsible retake relevant
training courses. The training has been completed, according to the report.
Budkie said the animal rights group has seen no action on any of the demands
it made in May, which included IU reimbursing the National Institutes of
Health and firing employees responsible for the deaths of 116 rats and mice.
It also called for an independent investigation, suggesting the Office of
Laboratory Animal Welfare's approval of IU's corrective actions was
insufficient.
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