ACTION ALERT:
Contact Dr. Robert Gibbens Director
Western Region, USDA
[email protected]
[email protected]
SAMPLE MESSAGE:
Please levy a maximum fine against the University of Missouri, Columbia, for
their blatant disregard of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) when their
negligence caused the deaths of five dogs and the disappearance of two
piglets. This must NOT be tolerated and MUST be punished to the fullest
extent of the law. The time is NOW to send a clear message with stiff
penalties to these negligent facilities that these behaviors will NOT be
tolerated!
Two piglets disappeared in a drain and five dogs died of heat stress at Mizzou lab, animal rights group says
From Roger McKinney, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 15
COLUMBIA, Mo. — An animal rights group in a federal complaint against MU
is alleging five dogs in a lab died of apparent heat stress and two piglets
in a lab disappeared into a drain trough.
Stop Animal Exploitation Now! filed the complaint with the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, alleging violations of the Animal Welfare Act. The complaint
refers to MU reports obtained by the group through the federal Freedom of
Information Act.
MU has regularly had run-ins with animal rights groups, from protests by
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to a public records lawsuit by
the Beagle Freedom Project.
“We proactively reported both of these incidents to the USDA and the Office
of Laboratory Animal Welfare immediately,” said MU spokesman Christian Basi.
USDA is the federal agriculture department. The Office of Animal Welfare is
part of the National Institutes of Health.
“They’re both very unfortunate instances,” Basi said. The university worked
quickly to correct the situations and hasn’t been contacted by the agencies
about any further requirements.
The complaint cites MU correspondence from Jan. 8: “An animal caretaker
entered the room in one of our facilities and found that it was very warm,
humid and five of the 10 dogs deceased.”
The group’s complaint quotes further from the MU document.
“Necropsies were performed on the five deceased dogs and no cause of death
was identified. Based on the warm and humid condition of the room, we
presume that the five dogs succumbed to heat stress.”
The other five dogs were treated and are doing well, the report reads.
The report states that the alerting sensor for the zone containing the room
the dogs were in was next door, so the elevated temperatures didn’t trigger
an alert.
“We have since installed alerting sensors in all large animal holding rooms
in this building,” the document reads. “We are assessing our other buildings
that alert in other zones and installing room-level alerting sensors as
needed.”
The complaint also cited a June 12, 2019, report of an incident on June 3
where two piglets disappeared into a drain trough that had been uncovered by
a hole in the floor of a crate. A worker recovered one live piglet from the
drain.
“Both the sow and the recovered piglet are doing well,” the MU report quoted
by the group reads. “The other two piglets were not found.”
The report states that a plumber was called to determine if the piglets
might be in the drain pipes, but they weren’t recovered after extensive
searching.
“The plan to help prevent this from happening again is all floor pieces over
the troughs will be checked visually, to assure they are seated correctly
and have no visual flaws, and manually by walking and putting weight on
them, prior to putting pregnant sows in the farrowing crates,” the MU report
reads. “In addition, drain plugs will be kept in the trough drains when
piglets are small.”
The complaint calls for a full USDA investigation. The animal rights group
states the dog deaths and piglet disappearance resulted from negligence. It
is seeking the maximum fine of $10,000 per infraction per animal.
MU is accredited by an outside organization that promotes the humane
treatment of laboratory animals — the American Association for Accreditation
of Laboratory Animal Care International, Basi said
“Our campus has several policies and procedures in place that meet and
exceed federal law,” Basi said.
Animal research is critical to finding therapies for cancer, heart disease
and other ailments, Basi said.
“We’ve made a lot of progress on these diseases with this research,” he
said.