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Atrocities in the Laboratory -Washington Times OP/ED August 1, 2002
NABR’s Misinformation Cripples Animal Welfare and Scientific Integrity Letter of Support from Colgate - Palmolive
Should the AWA Cover Poll
Shows Researchers Favor
Statements of Support from Letter
of Support from
Oversight and Coordination
All Laboratory Animals
Agony of Animals at Amgen |
Sound science?
NO! Without the modest protections of the Animal Welfare Act, the animals suffer and so does the science. This rodent cage at a major university laboratory is an example of conditions under which birds, mice and rats are maintained because USDA has been prevented from providing the mandated legal oversight. The vast majority of scientists agree that birds, rats, and mice—95 percent of the animals used in laboratories—should be protected under the Act’s regulations, as the law itself requires. Valid scientific data can only be obtained if the animals are properly cared for. In 1970 the Animal Welfare Act was specifically amended to protect all “warm-blooded animals” used in research. However, for 30 years, USDA has arbitrarily and illegally excluded 23 million warm-blooded animals from coverage under the modest provisions of this law. The Animal Welfare Act establishes humane standards of care for all warm-blooded animals used in research, but the regulations for enforcement of the law exclude laboratory mice, rats and birds. As a result, when USDA veterinarians conduct their routine, unannounced inspections of research facilities, they specifically overlook the care of birds, mice and rats. Nonetheless, these USDA veterinarians have noted horrors during their inspections, including the following: At a large, private, accredited biotechnology company: Inadequately anesthetized mice were sliced open and had their organs cut out by a research assistant. The approved research protocol, which was ignored, stated that the mice would be dead when their organs were “harvested.” Three of the institution’s veterinarians and a veterinary technician attempted, but failed, to stop the employee from continuing with the torturous procedure. The assistant had been cited twice before for causing pain and distress in mice and rats so she should not have been experimenting on animals. At a large, university laboratory: A moribund rat who was barely breathing was found in a freezer. “The frigid condition of this animal and that fact that it was surrounded by chewed plastic bags containing other dead rats, indicated that it had been in the freezer for some time, possibly a day or more….Had this incident occurred involving a species covered by the Animal Welfare Act, the University would be liable for serious violations of sections pertaining to the IACUC [Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee], euthanasia, provision of appropriate veterinary care, and training of personnel. The fact that the animal confined in the freezer was a rat and therefore not a covered species in no way diminishes the seriousness of this egregious lack of humane care for this animal. To me, this disturbing event raises grave concerns regarding the function of the IACUC and the delivery of veterinary care.” To claim birds, mice and rats don’t need the Animal Welfare Act is nonsense.
Working Group to Preserve the
Animal Welfare Act/ |
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