Welsh Report Shows Increased Animal Research at Cardiff University

Here's an article about an increase in animal experiments at Cardiff University in Wales. According to a Wales on Sunday investigation, the number of animals used at Cardiff has risen by 13 percent since 2006.

In four years it experimented on 157,839 mice, 17,324 rats, 11,096 fish, 1,941 birds, 1,253 guinea pigs, 933 pigeons, 884 frogs, 207 cats, 54 rabbits and 18 tree shrews from the tropics of south-east Asia.

By comparison, Bangor University used 1,464 mice and 664 fish, Aberystwyth used 289 cattle, 153 mice and 102 sheep and Swansea used 1,208 fish.

Why I Question Animal Testing 2.1

This is a continuation of an earlier post about why I question animal testing.

Oftentimes, scientists seem to think that they just need to waive their PhDs and research projects in everyone's faces and we should all shut up and bow our heads to their great wisdom. But universities and scientists are not always there working for pure learning or the improvement of humanity. There may be a business component there as well. Now, some people may be just fine with that, but my point is that universities and their scientists are not necessarily being motivated by pure, altruistic purposes.

I read the following in a book about the pharmaceutical industry by Marcia Angell (the first woman to serve as the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and currently a Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Medical School) called The Truth about the Drug Companies. It is about the Bayh-Dole Act and it has really stuck with me....

{The Bayh-Dole Act} enabled universities and small businesses to patent discoveries emanating from research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the major distributor of tax dollars for medical research, and then to grant exclusive licenses to drug companies. Until then, taxpayer-financed discoveries were in the public domain, available to any company that wanted to use them. But now universities, where most NIH-sponsored work is carried out, can patent and license their discoveries, and charge royalties. Similar legislation permitted the NIH itself to enter into deals with drug companies that would directly transfer NIH discoveries to industry.

Bayh-Dole gave a tremendous boost to the nascent biotechnology industry, as well as to big pharma. Small biotech companies, many of them founded by university researchers to exploit their discoveries, proliferated rapidly. They now ring the major academic research institutions and often carry out the initial phases of drug development, hoping for lucrative deals with big drug companies that can market the new drugs. Usually when a patent held by a university or a small biotech company is eventually licensed to a big drug company, all parties cash in on the public investment in research.

.....The Reagan years and Bayh-Dole also transformed the ethos of medical schools and teaching hospitals. These nonprofit institutions started to see themselves as "partners" of industry, and they became just as enthusiastic as any entrepreneur about the opportunities to parlay their discoveries into financial gain. Faculty researchers were encouraged to obtain patents on their work (which were assigned to their universities), and they shared in the royalties. Many medical schools and teaching hospitals set up "technology transfer" offices to help in this activity and capitalize on faculty discoveries. As the entrepreneurial spirit grew during the 1990s, medical school faculty entered into other lucrative financial arrangements with drug companies, as did their parent institutions. One of the results has been a growing pro-industry bias in medical research-exactly where such bias doesn't belong. Faculty members who had earlier contented themselves with what was once referred to as a "threadbare but genteel" lifestyle began to ask themselves, in the words of my grandmother, "If you're so smart, why aren't you rich? Medical schools and teaching hospitals, for their part, put more resources into searching for commercial opportunities.

Rumors Circulate over Cancellation of Anthrax Project

Research supporters are going crazy over Oklahoma State University stopping anthrax testing on baboons. In addition to the threat of animal "extremists," they are also blaming T. Boone Pickens' wife Madeleine, whose husband is a big donor.

Minnesota Activist Indicted for Animal Terrorism

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune...I don't see any mention in this article (or in this one from the Chicago Tribune) about threats to human life in this incident. Straight vandalism and economic loss. Is this a valid prosecution? Is it terrorism?

Scott DeMuth, who is being held in jail in Davenport, is scheduled to make his first appearance in U.S. District Court Friday.

According to the indictment, unsealed today, DeMuth committed "animal enterprise terrorism and cause[d] economic damage to the animal enterprise in an amount exceeding $10,000" between Nov. 9 and Nov. 20, 2004.

The Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for vandalizing two labs and three offices at the University of Iowa on Nov. 14, 2004.

DeMuth and Carrie Feldman, another activist from Minneapolis have been jailed since Tuesday for refusing to answer questions before the federal grand jury in Davenport.

They were found in contempt of court by U.S. District Judge John Jarvey after they were offered limited immunity for their testimony before the grand jury to compel them to talk.

PETA Busts University of Utah Research Lab

An undercover PETA investigator shot hours of footage of alleged mistreatment of animals. A University representative denied any mistreatment: "None of the things she alleges are substantive," said Tom Parks, the U.'s vice president for research. "It's a remarkably banal list of ordinary events in an animal-care facility."

Per the Salt Lake Tribune, these are some of the allegations....

*Failed to ensure that experiments minimized discomfort, distress and pain to the animals. In one case, up to 17 kittens from three litters died or were euthanized -- with no experiment data generated -- after injections to induce hydrocephalus.

» Discouraged the filing of health status reports to staff veterinarians -- "even when animals were clearly in distress.''

» Failed to provide adequate housing and management for animals that, in some instances, led to unnecessary stress, pain, injury or death.

» Failed to provide minimal enrichment for animals -- companionship for monkeys, balls for pigs, paper towels for mice -- to reduce emotional stress.

Certainly a case to follow.

UC Davis Named in Criminal Complaint for Mistreatment of Lab Animals

From the Los Angeles Chronicle...

The University of California, Davis is the focus of a major federal complaint charging it and two other nationally known university research centers have killed dozens of primates through traumatic injuries, veterinary negligence and other violations. The others are the University of Michigan and University of Louisiana/New Iberia.

A protest will be held today at the UCD Quad (1 Shields Ave.), sponsored by SAEN {Stop Animal Exploitation Now}, an Ohio-based animal research watchdog group.

SAEN said UC Davis is responsible for the deaths of at least 14 monkeys over an 11-month period from June of 2008 to April of this year, and that the deaths violated federal law. The primate center at UC Davis has been cited several times after monkeys were killed in preventable lab mishaps.

More Info on Humane Society University

I came across this article in Inside Higher Ed.

University of Iowa Animal Lab Goes Underground

From the Des Moines Register.....

The Iowa Board of Regents approved $11.2 million for an underground vivarium that will house University of Iowa animal research laboratories.

The 35,000-square-foot facility would connect the Medical Education Research Facility and Carver Biomedical Research Building on the west side of campus. The links would mean researchers would never have to transport animals above ground, said Jordan Cohen, interim U of I vice president for research.

A Nov. 14, 2004, break-in at animal research laboratories in the U of I’s Spence Laboratories and Seashore Hall cost about $425,000 and temporarily stalled some research. The Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the attack, in which masked intruders trashed computers and other equipment and stole hundreds of laboratory animals.

I'm so sorry (actually, I'm not), but I have no patience for the sob story. Poor, poor long-suffering animal researchers. They only want to help people....as they also get salary increases, patents, tenure and all the other perks.

How convenient that not only will this underground prison allow for "security," but it will also hide research "practices" completely from the public eye.

Vandals are not the greatest threat to animal researchers, it's transparency. And they know it.

Breeders Also Supply Universities with Research Animals

I guess I'm living in a cave. I didn't know that there were specific breeders out there producing animal subjects for medical research. According to this article, some are so bad that the University of California and the University of Cincinnati have actually decided to end their relationships with them and stop purchasing animals bred for research use.

So, does this mean they are getting animals from shelters instead? I didn't really understand the second half of the article.....

USDA Investigating Clemson University

The investigation is related to the Animal Welfare Act and Clemson's research activities, but no details are available at this time.