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

Newsletters
The Defender
From Spring 2008 Issue

SAEN Exposes Federal Violations at North Dakota State University

Violation of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) by research laboratories in the United States is on the rise, increasing by over 90% in the five years leading up to 2006. Clearly, the USDA has been ineffective at protecting the animals that are confined in laboratories from abuse by researchers.

Therefore, SAEN has tackled the animal research industry on the national scale, exposing labs across the United States for being major violators of the AWA.

On January 29, 2008, SAEN contacted news media in Fargo (ND) to expose major abuses occurring inside the labs of North Dakota State University (NDSU). During 2006, NDSU had amassed over 2 dozen different violations of the Animal Welfare Act. Sections of the AWA relevant to veterinary care, functioning of the Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee, housing, and sanitation had been repeatedly violated by NDSU.

Many of the infractions at NDSU involved the suffering of sheep because this lab experiments on over 3,200 sheep per year. Information from USDA inspection reports reveals astonishing neglect and abuse:

“2 sheep were found dying and suffering, unnoticed by personnel, no care was being provided.”

“2 dead sheep found, 2 downed sheep, 1 sheep with prolapsed rectum.”

NDSU also experiments on pigs and has performed painful procedures on these intelligent, sensitive animals without use of post-operative pain relievers.

Also, for these projects alternatives to the use of animals in painful experiments were not adequately investigated by the principle researchers.

This facility was also cited in USDA reports for the use of expired drugs and inadequate inspections by NDSU’s own Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee because their own internal inspections considered unnoticed dead animals a “minor deficiency.”

Another serious issue at NDSU involved the absence of a qualified veterinarian to supervise this facility. The “attending veterinarian” was actually only a pathologist, qualified to do post-mortems and little else.

SAEN has launched an independent investigation of this laboratory by demanding that the President of NDSU provide us with crucial internal records as well as the opportunity to inspect NDSU laboratories.