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Also see:

USDA - APHIS Report - 2002

Media Coverage

Animal rights group says university flawed in treatment of lab animals - 6 May 2005

ANIMAL RESEARCH Activists challenge UI standards - 5 May 2005

Groups call for UI to open labs - 5 May 2005

Students protest animal testing at UT - 27 Apr 2005

Group pressures University of Iowa to halt animal research - 11 Feb 2005

University of Iowa target of animal rights group - Members say research done to win grants - 11 Feb 2005

PROTEST: Group criticizes University of Iowa animal research - 11 Feb 2005

New animal group to investigate University of Iowa - 11 Feb 2005

University of Iowa Animal Rights Protest - 11 Feb 2005

Press Releases

4 May 2005 - University of Iowa Breaks Federal Law; Squanders Tens of Millions on Useless Research

10 February 2005 - University of Iowa lying to public, charges national research watchdog group; Probe launched in wake of ALF raid
 

Rats, mice, birds, amphibians and other animals have been excluded from coverage by the Animal Welfare Act. Therefore research facility reports do not include these animals. As a result of this situation, a blank report, or one with few animals listed, does not mean that a facility has not performed experiments on non-reportable animals. A blank form does mean that the facility in question has not used covered animals (primates, dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, pigs, sheep, goats, etc.). Rats and mice alone are believed to comprise over 90% of the animals used in experimentation. Therefore the majority of animals used at research facilities are not even counted.

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

Resources and Links

Facility Reports and Information

University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

News Conference Statement · May 4, 2005

Following the break-in at Spence Labs last November a large amount of information has been circulated regarding animal experimentation at the University of Iowa. In February, Stop Animal Exploitation Now launched an official investigation. I am here today to report on our preliminary findings.

Records from the UI Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) obtained through Open Records laws reveal a number of problems regarding animal welfare:

· During a routine inspection UI veterinarian Dr. Mike Parker observed dogs being kept in dirty cages with little psychological enrichment and inadequate exercise.

· A USDA inspection revealed animal welfare act violations during a pig surgery. This exact violation was found in the exact same lab 6 months prior during an inspection conducted by a UI compliance monitor. Despite the fact that the violation had been detected 6 months earlier, the USDA inspection reveals that 6 months later, the problem still had not been corrected.

· 5 Nonhuman primates were experimented on over and over again at UI from 1987 - 2003. These poor monkeys were confined in abysmal conditions for more than 16 years and subjected to repeated experiments. Records show that the animals were passed from one researcher to the next in experiment after experiment. The fate of those animals is unknown. Records show that a letter was sent to the last researcher who had possession of the monkeys stating that “the animals need to be used within 2 months time and euthanized or they will be sold to another institution.”

· A disturbing proposal by animal researcher Dr. Douglas Fredericks (a member of the IACUC) reveals that he is planning a study where dogs will languish and die in their cages. According to IACUC Meeting Minutes: “dogs will be monitored 3 times a day for 2 weeks and then once a day until death.” UI would not release any additional information regarding Dr. Fredericks’ protocol, which was unanimously approved by the Committee.

· Mice and rats have their necks broken at UI. Instead of being humanely euthanized, rodents are sometimes killed by what is known as “cervical dislocation,” a process that is cruel and causes needless suffering.

Records also indicate that in 2003 UI failed to conduct inspections in compliance with federal law.

· UI received a letter from the NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare stating that UI’s most recent facility inspections were not conducted as often as required by federal law. Given the fact that UI failed to conduct inspections according to the bare minimum required by federal law, one can only wonder about additional animal welfare violations that are going undetected in UI labs.

· Federal law also requires that there be at least one community member on the Committee who is not affiliated with the UI to represent the community’s interest in animal welfare. However, UI does not have any standards for how that person will be chosen. The selection process appears to be based on whether or not the community representative knows someone else on the committee: “If anyone knows of a non-institutional person (not affiliated with the University of Iowa) that would like to be a member of the IACUC, please let either [the Chairman or the Vice-Chairman know].” As members of the Iowa City community, we do not feel that it is appropriate for Committee members to look to their friends to serve in a capacity that is intended to vindicate the animal welfare concerns of the entire community.

The University assures us that all is well within its laboratories, but it will not allow anyone to look at what is going on inside. By our lights, the burden of proof is on them to substantiate their claims about animal welfare. If the University has nothing to hide, they should allow a reporter to photograph the mice, rats, rabbits, birds, ferrets, dogs, cats, pigs and nonhuman primates who are being subjected to experiments that are funded with our tax dollars.

We simply cannot abide by UI’s claims that animals in laboratories are “extremely well treated.” Animals at UI have parts of their brains burned with DC current to produce “lesions,” they are intentionally addicted to drugs, they are “conditioned” with electric shocks, they are subjected to radiation experiments, they are intentionally infected with cancer, they endure seizures induced with electricity, they are poisoned in toxicity tests, and they suffer from a whole host of other painful protocols. These animals experience the world behind the bars of their cages. This is a world that they did not create and that they do not understand. They are yanked from their cages, worked over, and discarded like so much trash. We take no comfort in reassurances from the people who design and carry out these experiments that the animals under their care are well-treated. We simply do not believe that a person who designs a study where dogs have their bones intentionally broken is qualified to assuage anyone’s concerns about animal welfare.

We have had enough of the tired accusation that questioning animal research constitutes an assault on science. We favor medical progress, we want people to be healthy and we want researchers who spend our tax dollars to be held accountable for the way they spend that money. A great deal of scholarly research shows animal research is misleading, yields information of limited extrapolative benefit to humans and actually hinders medical progress by diverting economic and intellectual resources away from methodologies better suited to curing human disease. We call on the UI to do away with these useless and counterproductive experiments.

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Rats, mice, birds, amphibians and other animals have been excluded from coverage by the Animal Welfare Act. Therefore research facility reports do not include these animals. As a result of this situation, a blank report, or one with few animals listed, does not mean that a facility has not performed experiments on non-reportable animals. A blank form does mean that the facility in question has not used covered animals (primates, dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, pigs, sheep, goats, etc.). Rats and mice alone are believed to comprise over 90% of the animals used in experimentation. Therefore the majority of animals used at research facilities are not even counted.

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Our education and humane efforts include: abuse, animal, animals, AWA, awa, Animal Welfare Act, animal welfare act, ape, apes, baboon, cat, cats, cruelty, dog, dogs, education, experiment, experiments, experimentation, exploitation, freedom, guinea, humane, lab, labs, laboratory, laboratories, liberation, macaque, medical, mice, monkey, monkeys, pig, pigs, primate, primates, rabbit, rabbits, rat, rats, research, researcher, researchers, right, rights, SAEN, saen, squirrel, testing, vivisection, welfare (d-43)


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