ACTION ALERT:
Contact:
Dr. Robert Gibbens
Director, Animal Welfare Operations, USDA-APHIS
[email protected]
[email protected]
Please investigate the University of Idaho/and the USDA’s own Animal Disease
Research Unit for their blatant disregard of the Animal Welfare Act when
their negligence allowed two calves to die. Their behavior should NOT be
tolerated and MUST be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Animal welfare advocacy group targets USDA research at University of Idaho
From Troy Oppie, BoiseStatePublicRadio.org, April 20, 2022
An Ohio-based animal welfare advocacy group has filed a federal complaint
alleging animal abuse at the University of Idaho.
The group Stop Animal Exploitation Now (SAEN) alleges two calves suffered
unnecessarily when researchers exposed them to hundreds of ticks. One calf
died, and in a separate incident, another was euthanized.
“If these animals had been observed more thoroughly, these incidents could
have been prevented," said SAEN Executive Director Michael Budkie.
The University of Idaho said it is not responsible for the research, but its
institutional Animal Care and Use Committee investigates when an animal
welfare issue is reported. A university spokesperson said that the group
determined USDA staff handled the incidents appropriately.
The SAEN complaint was based on those reports, which the organization
obtained by records request. That’s their primary method of discovering
animal welfare issues.
“We want the public to realize that illegal events take place in U.S.
laboratories in all likelihood on an almost daily basis,” Budkie said.
Complaints like the one filed against the University of Idaho typically
trigger an investigation by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service (APHIS). Violations are punishable by fines, but many inspections
listed in the APHIS database resulted in written warnings.
The University of Idaho has no history of complaints or inspection
violations in the APHIS database.
“They [the university] are at least involved in a supervisory nature, as far
as investigating these compliance issues,” Budkie said. “We felt that they
should be part of the complaint.”
The research run by the USDA at the root of the complaint is searching for
ways to stop certain parasites and ticks from wiping out livestock in both
Africa and the United States.
A spokesperson for the agency would not agree to a recorded interview but
confirmed in a statement the calves that died had unusual allergic reactions
from exposure to the pathogens involved.
“The incidents were not attributed to abuse, neglect or violation of
standards,” the agency said.
“From the documentation that we obtained, it's not entirely clear if these
were unique situations,” Budkie said.
The USDA wrote of the two deaths, “[The 2020 calf] had a very acute reaction
to exposure to the Theileria parva parasite. While the calf was monitored
several times a day, once it began to display symptoms, the symptoms
progressed in an atypically fast manner that occurs in less than 10% of
exposed calves.”
“The [2021 calf] had an extreme, severe allergic reaction to exposure to R.
microplusticks. Such allergic-like reactions are known but this is the first
such reaction that has ever been seen in an animal at this facility. There
is no available test for this rare trait.”
The USDA spokesperson said the T. parva research concluded, and research
around the Babesia parasite continues at the University of Idaho site.
“If R. microplus ticks were to become reestablished in the United States,
the cost to the U.S. cattle industry would be astronomical due to the
transmission of Babesia parasites that would be likely to accompany the
ticks as they spread to cattle in this country that have no protective
immunity.”
Budkie, who worked in an animal research facility before becoming an
activist against such research in the mid-1980s, wants to see the industry
pivot to clinical research on animals in the field experiencing naturally
occurring phenomena.
“Simply creating more public awareness about this is a win in and of
itself,” he said. “I would suggest that most of the people in your audience
were not aware that cows at the University of Idaho - whether they're part
of the [USDA] facility or part of the University of Idaho itself - are
essentially being fed to ticks.”