Media Coverage About SAEN Stop Animal Exploitation Now

UGA sees increase in animal treatment complaints, says issues self reported and corrected

ACTION ALERT:

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

Please levy the MAXIMUM FINE against Colorado State University for their blatant disregard of the Animal Welfare Act which led to the deaths of 12 rabbits. Their behavior should NOT be tolerated and MUST be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

 

UGA sees increase in animal treatment complaints, says issues self reported and corrected

From Abraham Kenmore, Athens Banner-Herald, May 18, 2023

The University of Georgia has seen an increase in citations from the US Department of Agriculture for animal welfare regarding the animals in their labs and educational facilities in recent years.
Under the Animal Welfare Act, USDA inspectors routinely do surprise inspections to make sure organizations are in compliance. There have been four of these inspections since the start of 2021, turning up eight critical and six non-critical incidents regarding animal welfare.

From 2014 through 2019 (there were no listed inspections in 2020), there were no critical incidents.
The reports caused an animal rights group, SAEN, to file a complaint against the university with the USDA and call for UGA to lose National Institute of Health funding. A spokesperson for the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service did not answer specific questions on whether the department has taken any action on the SAEN complaint, but did provide general information on the investigation and enforcement process.

The most recent inspection from March lists several issues, including a need to clean up a surgery lab that had colorful streaks on the floor tiles, along with dirt and hair. It also noted inadequate or dangerous fencing at two horse pastures and sharp wooden posts from prior fencing in a deer enclosure.

The same report listed prior incidents that the University self reported, including from October when a deer was euthanized after it was found to be suffering from pneumonia, which went unidentified for some time. Also last fall, another incident involved an electric shock being accidentally applied to a dog under anesthesia for a study, resulting in a third degree burn that required medical treatment. Finally a female macaque monkey trapped her arm in the grate of an enclosure, injuring herself; although the monkey recovered without incident the report faulted the enclosure

"The university self-identified and reported these issues," wrote Greg Trevor, associate vice president and university spokesperson. "We have already resolved most of them and are in the process of resolving the few that remain. The increase in these issues — which, again, were self-reported by the university — is consistent with the dramatic rise in the university's research enterprise in recent years."

A list at the end of the USDA report from March shows 778 animals at the university from 16 different species, ranging from 186 gerbils to three Nancy's Ma's Night Monkeys.
Several incidents in recent years led to animal deaths, including incorrect blood draws on hamsters resulting in two deaths, improper anesthetic application to a ferret, improper catheter placement on rabbits leading to two deaths, and the death of a deer who stopped breathing after being sedated.

UGA follows all standards of the Animal Welfare Act, Trevor wrote, as well as the Public Health Service Policy and National Research Council Guide use and treatment of lab animals and third-party accreditation from Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International.

"We do not take lightly the decision to use animals in some of our research," he wrote. "Nearly every advancement in medicine, medical devices and surgical procedures has depended on research involving animal subjects."

This research at UGA, he wrote, has led to treatments for a range of conditions including cancers, infectious disease, neurological disorders and chronic disease.

See also:
Return to Media Coverage