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Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!
S. A. E. N.
"Exposing the truth to wipe out animal experimentation"

Articles and Reports

Breaking the Law II, Animal Care in U.S. Labs: Government Sanctioned Negligence
By Michael A. Budkie, A.H.T., Executive Director, SAEN

National Trends in Violations of the AWA

During 2005 the number of violations of laboratory specific violations increased during 2005 (1,780 violations) by 53.7% from 2002 (1,106 violations). The majority of these violations were in the areas of Institutional Animal Care & Use Committees (1,116). For details of these violations see Appendix B.

In general the findings for the 163 laboratories used in this study were spread across a broad spectrum. 61 of these facilities either had no non-compliances during this period, or had no regulated animals when inspected, and so were not really inspected.

The remaining laboratories had a wide range of violations. 63 of the remaining 102 facilities had 3 violations or less. However, these facilities do not represent institutions where all was well. For Example, the Southern Research Institute, with only 2 violations had a very serious infraction:

Other institutions having only a small number of violations should also be of major concern. The University of Chicago is one such facility:

In other words, one primate had as much as an 11% loss of body weight due to being deprived of water. This is similar to a 150 lb human losing 17 lbs due to thirst. Clearly, this is a very significant situation.

Another such situation existed at Penn. State University:

The 103 laboratories within the study group violated the Animal Welfare Act a total of 487 times, an average of 6.3 times per year. The majority of the violations took place in the areas of Institutional Animal Care & Use Committees (176), Housing/Facilities (166 – this category is a combination of several areas) and Veterinary care (75). Collectively these three categories accounted for 417 (85.6%) of the violations.

Go on to The Top 20 AWA Violators
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