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

Media Coverage

Activists: ‘U’ hurts animals

	The State News • JORDAN MCCORMACK
	Jane Parent, a member of the Kalamazoo Animal Liberation League, holds a sign on Farm Lane in front of Giltner Hall on Sunday in protest of MSU’s inhumane acts toward lab animals. Parent was protesting to let people know that MSU has been charged by the USDA on several counts of maltreatment toward lab animals.

By KARI NEERING
The State News Monday, April 20, 1998

"Imagine having your body left to science … while you’re still in it" — those were the words on one of several posters erected by a small group of animal rights activists who demonstrated in front of Giltner Hall on Sunday afternoon.

"We’re starting to educate the public on what’s going on with animals," said Michael Budkie, director of Stop Animal Exploitation Now, an animal activist group in Milford, Ohio. "MSU has long been involved in animal mistreatment."

Budkie and about five other activists from different cities and animal rights groups held up signs promoting animal rights in front of the hall, which is used for microbiology and physiology research and teaching, and spoke of MSU’s alleged history of mistreating animals.

But Jerry Dodgson, chairperson of the Department of Microbiology, said the group’s accusations were inaccurate and misleading to the public.

"I disagree (with their comments)," he said. "The university has a mechanism set up which reviews all animal use."

U-M alumni Tiiu Ruben, who represented the Michigan Animal Rights to Society in the demonstration, said animal abuse is happening at MSU and that is what brought the different organizations together.

"It’s an issue that we’re all aware of and that’s what brought us here," she said. "It’s inhumane and it’s cruel."

Other groups represented included the Kalamazoo Animal Liberation League and West Michigan for Animals, located in Grand Rapids.

Budkie said, according to a United States Department of Agriculture report his group filed for under the Freedom of Information Act, MSU received three official warnings from 1992-94 and a $600 fine for violation of the Animal Welfare Act.

"If a person gets three (violations) for driving under the influence, they get their driver’s license taken away," Budkie said. "Why should this be any different?"

But university spokesman Terry Denbow said any accusations made by the demonstrators are insignificant because the violations were minor and taken care of long ago.

"Our reputation and record is exemplary," he said. "There had been some minor issues but they have been addressed."

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