ACTION ALERT: Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! (SAEN) ~ Sioux Center business focus of complaint
Contact:
Dr. Robert Gibbens
Director, Western Region, USDA
[email protected]
[email protected]
Please levy the MAXIMUM FINE against Exemplar Genetics for their blatant
disregard of the Animal Welfare Act when their negligence killed two pigs.
Their behavior should NOT be tolerated and MUST be punished to the fullest
extent of the law.
Sioux Center business focus of complaint
From Mark Mahoney, NWESTIOWA.com, May 11, 2020
An Ohio-based animal welfare organization has filed a federal complaint
against a Sioux Center biomedical research company.
The complaint filed on April 28 by Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! — SAEN —
accuses Exemplar Genetics of violating the federal Animal Welfare Act.
According to its website, Exemplar develops “specialized miniature swine
models that are genetically engineered to exhibit a wide variety of human
disease states and to provide a more accurate platform to test the efficacy
of new medications and devices.”
Exemplar is a subsidiary of Precigen Inc. — a Maryland-based
biopharmaceutical company — and recently was renamed as Precigen Exemplar.
In its complaint, SAEN cited an Exemplar report dated Jan. 14 that discusses
the deaths of two pigs due to a crash during transportation from Sioux
Center to Massachusetts.
The report stated four Yucatan miniature pigs were loaded onto a small
bumper hitch trailer at Exemplar on Jan. 6.
About halfway through the trip, a mechanical failure caused the trailer to
become detached from the truck hauling it on the Ohio Turnpike.
The safety chains held long enough to slow down the trailer, but then the
chains broke and the trailer entered the median.
“Upon initial inspection, the driver thought that one pig was dead and the
other three were okay,” according to the report.
“The truck and trailer were repaired overnight. The pigs remained on the
trailer during this time, being cared for by the driver.”
The pigs were transported back late on Jan. 7 to Exemplar in Sioux Center,
where they were examined by animal care staff members.
Two pigs were found to be healthy, a third one had an injured hip and the
fourth one was determined to be dead.
“The injured pig was treated according to veterinary orders,” according to
the report. “The three live pigs were moved back to normal housing
conditions.
“The injured pig was treated for an additional six days, but unfortunately
did not recover and was euthanized on January 13.”
The report did not say what time of day or where the crash occurred on the
Ohio Turnpike, a 241-mile toll highway that crosses the Buckeye State from
west to east.
Ohio State Highway Patrol Staff Lt. Craig Cvetan searched all of the
recorded crashes for the patrol posts on the Ohio Turnpike for Jan. 6, but
could not find any information about the Exemplar incident.
SAEN, a Milford, OH-based organization that describes itself as a national
watchdog that monitors research facilities for illegal activities and animal
abuse, obtained the Exemplar report through a Freedom of Information Act
request.
“Research laboratories, if they want to have any access to federal funding,
have to file reports anytime there’s an incident like this that doesn’t
follow federal policy or potentially violates federal regulations with
respect to the care of animals,” said SAEN executive director and co-founder
Michael Budkie.
“As a part of our monitoring of the animal research industry, we routinely
obtain all of those reports,” he said.
Exemplar provided “this report of noncompliance” to the Division of
Compliance Oversight under the National Institutes of Health’s Office of
Laboratory Animal Welfare.
“Exemplar Genetics is committed to protecting the welfare of animals used in
research and appreciates the guidance and assistance provided by OLAW in
this regard,” according to the report.
SAEN filed its complaint against Exemplar with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
R. Andre Bell, public affairs specialist for the USDA’s Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service, noted the federal agency is aware of SAEN’s
complaint.
“We are in the process of reviewing it,” Bell said. “We take each case very
seriously.”
In its complaint, SAEN alleged the Ohio Turnpike incident violates
animal-handling requirements of the Animal Welfare Act and is seeking the
maximum penalty of $10,000 per infraction per animal.
The organization’s complaint also alleged negligence on the part of Exemplar
staff members for either improperly hitching the trailer to the truck
hauling it or failing to notice deterioration of the hitch mechanism.
“This incident not only killed two animals, but it also endangered anyone
driving on the Ohio Turnpike at the same time as the Exemplar Genetics
vehicle,” Budkie said. “These pigs died because Exemplar Genetics staff
failed to follow the law.”
Neither Exemplar nor Precigen returned requests for comments on SAEN’s
complaint.
In the Exemplar report, the 12-year-old biomedical research company noted it
would address the issues that led to the Ohio Turnpike incident and minimize
the possibility of it happening in the future.
“A pre-trip checklist will be developed and used prior to each trip
involving the transport of live animals,” according to the report.
The report also stated employees responsible for vehicle maintenance and
setup will be trained by transportation authorities.
“Exemplar Genetics has a nine-plus-year history of providing safe
transportation for its swine,” according to the report.
“We believe this is an isolated incident and control measures will be added
to ensure this does not happen in the future.”