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Dr. Robert GibbensComplaint targets OSU animal tests
Bennett Hall,
GazetteTimes.com, February 21, 2019
An animal rights group is asking
the federal government to penalize Oregon State University over mishandled
animal experiments conducted at the College of Agricultural Sciences in
2017.
Stop Animal Exploitation Now! filed a formal complaint on Jan. 7 with the
U.S. Department of Agriculture seeking penalties of $10,000 per infraction
per animal.
The complaint is based on an August 2018 letter obtained by SAEN, an
Ohio-based animal rights watchdog, through a Freedom of Information Act
request.
The letter, from then-OSU Vice President for Research Cynthia Sagers to the
compliance director of the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare at the
National Institutes of Health, details multiple violations of animal
experimentation rules in connection with five surgeries performed on sheep
in November 2017.
OSU alerted the federal agency to the violations in a phone call in April
2018.
The surgeries involved collecting uterine tissue from ewes for a study of
ovarian hormone function. According to the university, all of the animals
survived the procedures with no post-operative complications.
The surgeries were performed by a faculty member and student anesthetist
whose names were not listed on the research protocol, and two of the
procedures took place after the protocol had expired. In addition, the
letter states, records of the surgeries were incomplete or unavailable, and
the faculty member broke departmental rules in obtaining drugs used in the
procedures.
OSU’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee temporarily barred the
faculty member from performing animal surgeries. On March 15, after the
faculty member attended a one-day conference and wrote a letter to the
committee documenting better understanding of policies and procedures, the
suspension was lifted and the faculty member was placed on probation for a
year.
Less than a week later, the committee learned that the faculty member had
failed to disclose information about two noncompliant surgeries on sheep.
This time, the faculty member was given a one-year suspension from
participating in any live animal surgeries or related procedures.
OSU spokesman Steve Clark pointed out that the university self-reported the
violations and took steps to correct the problem.
“Since these actions were taken by the university, the federal Office of
Laboratory Animal Welfare said in August 2018 that it had determined that
OSU had implemented sufficient measures to correct this matter and prevent
its recurrence,” Clark said in a prepared statement.
Clark declined to provide the faculty member’s name, saying “the university
does not publicly discuss personnel matters.”
Michael Budkie, executive director of SAEN, called the violations serious
and said the OSU researchers have demonstrated a disregard for the law.
“If they are willing to ignore so many legal requirements,” he said in an
email to the newspaper, “why should we believe they are doing anything that
even roughly resembles science?”
Budkie, whose organization has called for an end to all experimentation on
animals, called the practice “scientifically and ethically flawed” because
it disregards physiological differences between animals and humans and
overlooks the suffering of nonhuman test subjects.
“Animals are sentient beings who can feel pain, suffer from stress and
express emotions,” he said. “These things must not be ignored.”
SAEN sent a letter to OSU President Ed Ray calling for an internal
investigation into the noncompliant surgeries and a permanent ban on the
faculty member and student involved in the procedures.
Clark said no such steps were being contemplated by OSU officials.
“While I am not able to talk about the specifics of this matter involving
employees or students, we are confident that this matter has been
appropriately evaluated, dealt with and fully concluded,” he said.
According to the most recent annual report on the USDA website, Oregon State
University held 230 animals in fiscal year 2015 for teaching, research,
experimental or testing purposes. The tally included six dogs, 24 guinea
pigs, four hamsters, 34 sheep, eight pigs and 154 animals described as
“other farm animals.”