Animal advocates ask Auburn to discipline researchers
ACTION ALERT:
Contact:
[email protected]
President Gogue,
The Auburn grad students (and their supervisors) who administered unapproved
hazardous drugs to animals, endangering Auburn animal care staff, should
never be allowed to work with animals again. The grad students admitted that
they usually don't even read the protocols before working with animals. This
is not only bad for animals, it is also bad for science, and has endangered
Auburn employees! Please take action NOW!
Animal advocates ask Auburn to discipline researchers
From Eduardo Medina, ThePlainsman.com, October 18, 2019
Auburn University is being asked by an animal rights activist group to
discipline students who they say improperly administered hazardous drugs to
animals while doing research.
Stop Animal Exploitation Now sent the letter to Interim President Jay Gogue
on Monday and asked for an investigation. The group states in the letter
that the Auburn graduate students should have their animal privileges
permanently revoked, instead of the six-month suspension that they say "is
by no means a sufficient penalty."
Al.com's Lily Jackson, who first broke this story, reported that the
incidents were submitted to the Institutional Animal Use and Care Committee
on June 6, 2019, and interviews with the graduate students followed.
The animal rights group said it discovered a federal lab association report
detailing how four researchers were involved in the use of unapproved drugs
on animals, and one student hadn't reviewed protocol.
A miscommunication led to drugs being administered while animals were alive
and not after euthanasia, according to the report.
Auburn University sent the following statement to The Plainsman:
"Auburn University is committed to ensuring the highest level of research
compliance and laboratory safety. Our highly trained researchers are
dedicated to safe, respectful and humane practices in working with animals
to advance science and medicine.
"We take seriously any animal welfare concern, and our faculty and staff work closely with the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee to ensure that research and teaching involving animals meets and exceeds policies of regulatory and accrediting agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Public Health Service and the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International.
"In the rare instance when corrective action is required, we take the necessary steps to prevent similar incidents in the future, and we self-report to the appropriate agency or agencies. As a Carnegie R-1 research institution, Auburn is focused on providing life-saving solutions for the betterment of its community and beyond, with a safe and responsible process always being of paramount concern."
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