Nonprofit wants Ohio State to return $1.76M in research funds over alleged animal abuse
From Megan Henry, Dispatch.com, March 2, 2023
A nonprofit is calling for Ohio State University to refund $1.76 million
in research grant money to the National Institutes of Health over alleged
reports of animal abuse involving mice during research.
Stop Animal Expoitation Now (SAEN) sent a letter to Ohio State President
Kristina M. Johnson on Tuesday that also called on the university to fire
the research project's principal investigator, and the retraction of the
scientific journal article associated with that project published on the
National Library of Medicine's website.
Milford, Ohio-based SAEN says the principal investigator, who was not named
in Ohio State's report, failed to euthanize animals who were suffering from
ulcerated tumors, failed to provide pain relief and used expired drugs on
animals as part of the project
The research in question is related to cancer immunotherapy, and was
published in October 2021.
“Ohio State University allowed this Principal Investigator to continue to
violate federal regulations for multiple years, not only causing severe
suffering to the animals used in the project, but totally invalidating the
experiment,” SAEN co-founder Michael A. Budkie said in a news release
“Therefore, everything associated with these multiple incidents of federal
violations must be removed/ returned — grant funding, the publication, and
the Principal Investigator.”
Ohio State spokesman Ben Johnson said Thursday SAEN discovered this
information through an internal university auditing processing, and the
university took action once the violations were made known.
"Through its regular monitoring process, the university documents and
responds immediately when it learns of the rare cases where animal care does
not meet our standards," Johnson said. "This letter cites a report from the
university itself, making clear that Ohio State has a robust compliance
program and takes appropriate action when research does not meet our
standards.
Johnson did not identify what action the university took. He said the
university "takes seriously its responsibility in caring for lab animals
under its control."
All active research involving animals undergo "rigorous" peer review every
year by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, he said, and the
university inspects all animal research facilities twice a year, he said.
Ohio State will continue to monitor and evaluate its policies and procedures to "ensure high quality animal care and compliance with federal regulations and guidelines," Johnson said.
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