Animal rights group files complaint in Mayo Clinic research puppy death
Media Coverage About SAEN Stop Animal Exploitation Now

ACTION ALERT:

Contact:

Dr. Robert Gibbens
Director, Animal Welfare Operations, USDA-APHIS
[email protected] 
[email protected] 

SAMPLE MESSAGE:

Please LEVY the MAXIMUM FINE against the Mayo Clinic for their blatant disregard of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) when their negligence resulted in the death of a puppy. Their behavior must NOT be tolerated and MUST be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

 

Animal rights group files complaint in Mayo Clinic research puppy death

From Emily Cutts, PostBulletin.com, January 18, 2022

ROCHESTER — An animal rights group is asking the director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s animal welfare operations to fine Mayo Clinic $10,000 after an inspection found that a research lab failed to provide adequate veterinary care to a 9-month-old puppy that ultimately died.

Stop Animal Exploitation Now filed an animal welfare complaint Monday, Jan. 17, 2022, with the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

A routine inspection conducted on Sept. 24, 2021 found a “critical” non-compliant incident at the S.C. Johnson Research Facility. The inspection report, signed by a veterinary medical officer with the USDA on Dec. 17, 2021, cited the hospital’s research facility after finding a problem of animal health that was not reported to an attending veterinarian.

“On June 23, 2020, a 9-month old canine was found dead two days following a surgical procedure to place a tracheostomy tube,” the inspection report reads.

ROCHESTER — An animal rights group is asking the director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s animal welfare operations to fine Mayo Clinic $10,000 after an inspection found that a research lab failed to provide adequate veterinary care to a 9-month-old puppy that ultimately died.

Stop Animal Exploitation Now filed an animal welfare complaint Monday, Jan. 17, 2022, with the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

A routine inspection conducted on Sept. 24, 2021 found a “critical” non-compliant incident at the S.C. Johnson Research Facility. The inspection report, signed by a veterinary medical officer with the USDA on Dec. 17, 2021, cited the hospital’s research facility after finding a problem of animal health that was not reported to an attending veterinarian.

“On June 23, 2020, a 9-month old canine was found dead two days following a surgical procedure to place a tracheostomy tube,” the inspection report reads.

An autopsy was done on the dog, which found “a large mucous plug” below the tracheotomy tube that blocked the puppy’s airway and caused asphyxiation, the report reads.

Daily observations of the animal from the evening of June 21, 2020, show that mucous was detected by a member of the research team and not reported to the attending veterinarian,” the report states.

In SAEN’s complaint, the organization states that clinic “must be severely punished to demonstrate that the USDA has no tolerance for animal abuse/deaths/injuries which result from incompetence.”

A Mayo Clinic spokesman wrote in an email to the Post bulletin that the research project where the "unfortunate death of a study canine" was no longer active, but staff "carefully reviewed the incident immediately after it occurred to identify opportunities to further improve our care processes."

Mayo Clinic makes every effort to ensure the safety and well-being of animals and adheres to or exceeds all federal and state laws and regulations regarding animal use in research. Mayo uses animals in research only when necessary and always with the goal of providing improved treatment or therapies for patients," the statement read.

This is the second time since August 2014 that Mayo Clinic has been found to have a critical non-compliant incident at one of its locations, according to inspection reports readily available on the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service website. In January 2014, an anesthetized rhesus macaque suffered thermal burns during an imaging procedure.

An annual report for fiscal year 2020 noted that the Mayo Clinic has more than 1,100 animals. The vast majority of the animals are used in experiments, teaching, research, surgery, or tests involving accompanying pain or distress to the animals and for which appropriate anesthetic, analgesic, or tranquilizing drugs were used, according to the report.

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