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University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Galveston, TX

 

UTMB issued federal warning for animal welfare violations

From Lauren Frick, GalvNews.com, November 26, 2024

University of Texas Medical Branch received an official warning after the U.S. Department of Agriculture found evidence of two Animal Welfare Act violations.

Stop Animal Exploitation Now, a nonprofit that advocates for the end of animal abuse and animal testing, filed a complaint against the medical branch in August 2023.

The medical branch declined an interview and instead provided a statement.

“The professionals in the animal resource center at the University of Texas Medical Branch are committed to the welfare of the animals in their care,” spokesman Christopher Smith Gonzalez said.

“UTMB reported these incidents to regulatory agencies when they occurred, and the necessary actions were taken to ensure the safety of all animals at UTMB.”

In the complaint, Executive Director Michael Budkie alleged three violations — two critical and one non-critical — from a July 2023 inspection of the medical branch’s laboratory. The alleged critical violations resulted in the death of a non-human primate and guinea pig in November and December 2022.

In one inspection, The University of Texas Medical Branch is cited for boiling one animal alive, allowing another to asphyxiate, and failing to follow its own approved protocol, thereby potentially endangering the lives of 13 non-human primates,” Budkie wrote in the complaint.

The official warning, which was issued on Oct. 30, stated the department found evidence of the medical branch violating sections of the Animal Welfare Act relating to handling and primary enclosures.

Budkie doesn’t believe a warning goes far enough.

“Obviously, we were hopeful that it would have been a more serious enforcement action,” Budkie said.

Budkie had hoped the medical branch would be fined the maximum allowable fine — $12,722 per infraction, per animal, he said.

In his 2023 complaint, Budkie urged the department to fine the medical branch up to $100,000.

Budkie speculated the department decided to issue a warning as opposed to a fine because the violations were isolated incidents, he said.

“In some instances, the USDA is more likely to levy fines when there are repeat incidents, and neither of these was what you would refer to as a repeat incident,” Budkie said.

In the official warning, the department said it may pursue civil penalties, criminal prosecution or other sanctions if evidence of any of the violations is presented again in the future.

The medical branch has been fined in the past for violating the Animal Welfare Act. In 2016, the medical branch settled with the Department of Agriculture and the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare by implementing an improvement plan and paying a $33,000 fine to the agricultural department, which enforces the Animal Welfare Act.

The investigation stemmed from the findings of a February 2015 audit of a medical branch study of monkeys injected with Marburg virus and a routine inspection in February involving guinea pigs and Ebola research.

A routine inspection by the USDA’s Animal Care Division revealed that 19 guinea pigs had been found dead in their cage instead of having been properly euthanized during Ebola research, according to the inspection report.

“With a facility like UTMB, the vast majority of the research they do is federally funded,” Budkie said. “The animals that are the subject of these very serious federal violations are likely being paid for by tax dollars, which the general public, therefore, is paying for it. They have a right to know what’s going on.”

Both animal deaths referenced in the official warning were preventable, Budkie said, which leads him to question the research of the medical branch.

“Carelessness like this casts serious doubt on UTMB’s ability to do research,” Budkie said. “If UTMB’s lab staff can’t even tell that a travel box still contains an animal before sterilizing it, why should we believe that they can do science?”

The violations and resulting animal deaths are evidence the medical branch isn’t committed to animal welfare, Budkie said.

“If they actually took the steps necessary to protect the animals in their care, these incidents never would have happened. There wouldn’t have been an official warning,” Budkie said. 

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