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Reports Primate research again criticized - Animal rights group accuses UW
Anita Weier — 6/28/2007
An animal rights group has filed a complaint with federal regulators
alleging that the University of Wisconsin-Madison violated the Animal
Welfare Act in its treatment of primates used for research. Ohio-based Stop Animal Exploitation Now (SAEN) says necropsy reports
from animals that died in 2005 show that a 4-year-old macaque monkey had
a foreign body lodged in its intestinal tract, that a 1-year-old
marmoset suffered fractures and that another monkey died from sepsis
after her uterus ruptured. Additionally, a female rhesus monkey died in 2005 after a tube
inserted for surgery severely injured her throat, reports show. Other reports indicate that primates died with severe damage to their
skin and brains as a result of studies in which they had experimental
devices implanted under their skin or in their heads. Michael Budkie, executive director of SAEN, said such cases show lack
of adequate care for research animals. "It is clear that the documentation for the animals listed above
indicate a widespread pattern of negligence, inadequate veterinary care,
and deceitful reporting of experimental procedures at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison," Budkie wrote in his complaint to the U.S. Department
of Agriculture. Elizabeth Goldentyer, a regional director for the USDA's Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Services, responded in a letter that authorities
would look into his concerns and "take appropriate action if necessary."
Eric Sandgren, chairman of a UW-Madison committee that oversees
animal research projects, told The Capital Times that university
researchers welcome USDA inspectors and that their visits often lead to
improvement in the research program. However, he added, Budkie is using old reports about matters that
were already dealt with by the university, and he suspects nothing was
handled inappropriately. The examples cited by Budkie are "highly selective and taken
dramatically out of context. They represent examples of often
spontaneous disease that occurs in any population," Sandgren said. He also said the university had complied with the requirement to
report animals involved in painful experiments. The USDA is required to follow up on all complaints, Sandgren noted,
adding that he also will review the matters in question. But most of the cases are rare reactions that might occur with humans
as well, such as complications during birth, he said. "A foreign body ingested happens all the time in humans and animals.
He found one case of fracture in all the necropsy reports he had,"
Sandgren said. "The one on the list that is most likely a medical error was when the
tube was put in." Regarding implants under the skin, Sandgren said that when animals
reacted in the case cited, researchers stopped using the implants. Proper care has been taken, Sandgren stressed. Budkie sees it differently. He wants to meet with Sandgren to discuss the elimination of invasive
devices, such as spinal implants and head caps, that the animal rights
group says cause pain and distress for primates used in experiments. He
also wants the right to inspect all housing and experimental facilities
for primates at the UW-Madison and the Wisconsin National Primate
Research Center. "I find it very difficult to understand how the UW, while utilizing
these devices and procedures, can report to the USDA that no primates
experience unrelieved pain and distress" in cases where drugs are not
used, Budkie said in an interview. He further contends that experiments lose value when animals are ill.
"The UW is wasting tens of millions of U.S. tax dollars by experimenting
on sick animals," Budkie said. Sandgren said he will not meet with Budkie because "he is not
competent to be judging the records he requests." "Every animal that is euthanized at the end of an experiment is
necropsied because we want to know what happened," Sandgren added. "He
doesn't understand the material he has." Animal research is used to try to find treatments for human diseases.
The federally funded National Primate Research Center at the UW has
long been a target of animal rights groups. The Primate Freedom Project plans to build a museum next door to the
center to protest the research it considers cruel. The project, strongly
opposed by the university, is tied up in court. That group released internal university records in 2005 detailing a
study by a pediatrics professor that led to an unusual number of deaths
and illnesses in rhesus monkeys in 2001 and 2002. In one instance, a monkey died while an attendant went out to lunch
during an experiment. The study, which involved research on monkeys'
brains, was outlawed. The professor was suspended for two years from
doing animal research. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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