ACTION ALERT: Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! (SAEN) ~ Watchdog organization calls for investigation of UW's animal testing
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 Washington, Seattle, for their blatant disregard of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) when their negligence allowed multiple monkeys to die unnecessarily. Their behavior must NOT be tolerated and MUST be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Watchdog organization calls for investigation of UW's animal testing
From Devon McBride, DailyUW.com, September 23, 2019
UW claims violations already self-reported, defends practices
Stop Animal Exploitation Now (SAEN), a Cincinnati-based watchdog
organization for animal welfare, sent a letter to the Office of UW President
Ana Mari Cauce on Sept. 3 alleging “serious systemic problems” and insisting
the university “launch an independent probe of the animal experimentation
program.”
The letter outlined six incidents involving the deaths of rats and five
separate deaths of primates since 2018. It ends with two demands.
First, that all staff connected to any of the animal deaths mentioned be
terminated, and second, that the UW administration launch an “independent
investigation of the entire animal experimentation program at the University
of Washington, with the full results to be made public.”
The letter alleges that the incidents violate various sections of the Animal
Welfare Act which opens the UW to the possibility of fines by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA).
SAEN Executive Director Michael Budkie said his organization has not
received a response to the letter. Beyond the requests of this letter, SAEN
has alleged misconduct against the UW’s animal research dating back to at
least 2001 and has filed seven complaints with the USDA since 2016.
The Daily met with five officials of the UW Animal Research and Care
Facility to discuss the letter and the incidents described. The attendees
were Susan Gregg, Health Sciences director of media relations, Sally
Thompson-Iritani, director of the Office of Animal Welfare, Kim Stocking,
veterinarian with the Office of Animal Welfare, Jane Sullivan, chair of the
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), the oversight body
responsible for animal research, and Thea Brabb, faculty with Comparative
Medicine who oversees veterinary care of animals at the UW.
They emphasized the rarity of adverse events like the improper animal deaths
described in the letter as well as the transparency practiced by their
organizations.
According to Thompson-Iritani, the UW’s animal experimentation program is
inspected every three years, most recently in June, and has continued to be
recommended for accreditation.
Given the UW already independently inspects their program, the officials
with UW animal research will not be hiring another investigator as SAEN has
called for.
In July, The Daily reported that SAEN had filed a complaint with the USDA
regarding the death of the improperly fasted monkey. SAEN reported at the
time that the incident was brought to their attention via a whistleblower,
although officials with the UW Animal Research and Care Facility were quick
to want to point out all of the facts from the group’s September letter that
had been self-reported by the UW to the appropriate agencies.
Just as humans are advised to not eat or drink prior to surgery, animals are
supposed to fast before undergoing surgery to reduce the likelihood of
complications, particularly vomiting. Budkie and SAEN say this death was
entirely preventable, and that the UW researchers were “eager for the data”
and did not delay the surgery to allow the proper amount of fasting.
Thompson-Iritani noted that the UW is not disputing the facts of the letter.
“We would refute their interpretation but the claims are self-reported and
written by us.”
The other primate deaths included a death by asphyxiation, a death following
a femoral artery being hit during a blood draw, a death during recovery from
anesthesia, and one monkey euthanized following a fractured humerus.
The incident of rat deaths occurred when a staff member with the research
team mistakenly included a box with rats on a cart with boxes of items put
in an autoclave for sterilization.
“This kind of carelessness has no excuse,” SAEN wrote.
The UW officials did not offer any excuses. They explained that careful
steps are now taken to ensure animals never share carts with items that may
need to be sterilized.
SAEN’s takeaway from the episodes of negligence and alleged misconduct in
their letter is that the UW has demonstrated an inability to conduct basic
elements of research, such as properly fasting subjects before surgery and
preventing dehydration, which SAEN believes should call into question the
UW’s ability to conduct research at all.
“If UW staff can’t be counted on to not put animals in the autoclave, cause
death by dehydration, cause death by insufficient fasting before surgery,
allow suffocation/strangulation, then why should anyone believe that the UW
is in any way capable of doing anything that even roughly resembles
science?” SAEN’s letter reads.
When asked about the nearly two decades of misconduct SAEN has alleged
against the UW, Budkie said that it does not appear the UW has modified
their practices to prevent violations.
According to Thompson-Iritani, following each animal death, an action plan
is immediately put in place to correct the mistake or violation from
happening again.
In the past two decades, the UW Animal Research and Care Facility has been
fined by the USDA once, according to Sullivan. However, a research
institution can be found in violation of the Animal Welfare Act without
being fined. Fines are typically reserved for egregious and continuous
violations.
Researchers from the UW stressed the “devastation” felt by their entire
staff following any of these incidents but wanted to make clear “all of the
good work” they do and how rare these instances are. One figure that
demonstrates this rarity, provided by Gregg, is that the total number of
fastings prior to surgery was 6,365 last year, compared to the one fasting
that resulted in a monkey’s death.
To some, like SAEN, students, and community members who have protested the
UW’s animal research in the past, one case is too many. In an interview,
Budkie said even if the UW staff did not make these mistakes and alleged
violations, his organization would still disapprove of the university’s
animal testing.
Justifying the need for animal research, Brabb pointed to progress in fields
like diabetes, heart disease, and vaccines, all of which originate in animal
research which has resulted in life-saving advancements and quality of life
improvements in humans and animals that have been produced as a result.
Stocking dismissed methods such as computer modeling as viable alternatives
to animal testing, at least as they exist today. Stocking and Brabb, both
veterinarians, agreed getting computer programs to replace animal testing is
the eventual goal.
“All laboratory animal veterinarians are striving to put themselves out of a
job,” Brabb said.