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Media Coverage Johns Hopkins Agrees to Pay $25,000 To Settle Animal Welfare Act Allegations From the Medical Research Law & Policy Report Published 8/17/05 Johns Hopkins University has agreed to pay $25,000 in a settlement
with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on charges that the research
institution violated the Animal Welfare Act. The settlement, which according to USDA officials and documents
occurred in February, was made public Aug. 9 by the Cincinnati-based
watchdog group Stop Animal Exploitation Now (SAEN). Joanne Downer, a
spokeswoman at Johns Hopkins Medical School, confirmed to BNA the amount
of the settlement, stating that the payment does not mean the university
either affirms or denies the claims. According to the complaint and consent decision provided to BNA by
USDA, the agency's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)
charged Johns Hopkins with 31 alleged violations of research facility
regulations and 15 alleged violations of failing to meet the minimum
standards of care for animals. The charges were based on six APHIS
inspections conducted between January 1999 and June 2003. "The gravity of the respondent's violations is great," the complaint
document charged. The charges--most of which allegedly occurred between 1999 and
2000--included performing painful procedures on animals without proper
sedatives or anesthetics as well as failure to provide them with proper
post-procedural care. APHIS also charged that the university did not
always disclose the full nature of the experiment on the animal, and
sometimes failed to handle animals "as carefully as possible" so that
they did not feel unnecessary pain. In one 2003 protocol, the university
allowed euthanasia on animals up to seven days after the veterinarian
advised that they be euthanized, the document said. The majority of charges involving violation of minimum standards
accused the university of failing to house the animals according to
minimum space requirements and in some cases, especially for primates,
failing to keep their housing in good repair. "In April of 2004 we labeled Johns Hopkins one of the worst labs in
the nation for violating the Animal Welfare Act at least 31 times in
three years," Michael A. Budkie, executive director of SAEN, said in a
press release announcing the settlement. "Apparently the USDA agrees
with our investigation, which uncovered a wide array of illegal activity
at Johns Hopkins." Budkie said USDA should take more meaningful enforcement actions,
arguing that $25,000 easily could be absorbed in a research budget of
the size overseen by Johns Hopkins. Improvements Made at Hopkins. In 2004, Downer said the university's medical school had almost $450
million in research grants and contracts from the National Institutes of
Health. "We conduct a lot of research here," she said, but the amount of
the USDA settlement is not as important "as the improvements in our
system and reducing the chances that anything could go wrong in our
housing of research animals. As an institution and the people within the
institution, the safety and care of our animals is very important." Downer said Johns Hopkins had made significant improvements in how
the university cares for its laboratory animals before the USDA
complaints were filed. She said the changes were not based on the
complaints--which she said Johns Hopkins only received last year--but
rather represented an effort to adopt best practices. Most of the recommendations came from the Association for Assessment
and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International, a nonprofit
organization that provides voluntarily accreditation and assessment of
animal research programs. Downer said Johns Hopkins took an important step when it elevated the
position of the institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) and
other animal care responsibilities from a division within each
department to a stand-alone office. Under the changes, which she said
occurred three to four years ago, IACUCs now report directly to a
dedicated vice provost. The new system consolidating research animal oversight into a single
entity has formalized animal care at Johns Hopkins, providing for
greater consistency, Downer said. She said the university also has
opened new facilities for research animals in the last several years.
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