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Monkey deaths stir rights organization From the Independent Collegian, Student Newspaper of the University
of Toledo Andrea Sinclair Last Friday, Stop Animal Exploitation Now, an animal-rights group,
announced that two squirrel monkeys died prematurely during research in
May 2005 at UT's Health Science Campus. "The animals were anesthetized throughout the duration of the
experiment, they were never intended to, nor did they awaken from
anesthesia and at no time did they experience any pain or suffering,"
said a statement released by UT. According to a USDA inspection report, the Institutional Animal Care
and Use Committee (IACUC), which oversees UT's animal research, failed
to notice how researchers weren't following protocol. One of the monkeys received a tracheotomy, an incision in the
windpipe, which was a breach in procedure, the inspection report said.
"The monkeys were supposed to be intubated," said Michael Budkie,
executive director of SAEN. Budkie said that the primates died under questionable circumstances.
According to the UT statement, John Wall, a neuroscience professor,
"deviated slightly" from approved protocol during an experiment. Wall declined to comment. According to The University of Toledo Web site, Wall is interested in
"how normal and abnormal feelings of the body are generated by
somatosensory circuits [or sensory receptors] in the brain." "The goal of the [2005] research involving squirrel monkeys was to
better understand how the brain responds and reorganizes itself
following arm and leg injuries," the UT statement said. "Valuable
knowledge was gained during the experiments." "This research falls into [neural information processing] - it's one
of the most duplicated types of research," Budkie said. "This type of
research is being funded over and over again [by the National Institutes
of Health], sometimes simultaneously." Wall's research, officially tilted "Mechanisms & Substrates of
Somatosensory Plasticity," was funded at $198,450. Budkie also doubts the credibility of the research. If protocol wasn't followed, was the research even valid?" Budkie
said. The UT statement said that the researcher deviated from protocol to
minimize harm to the primates. UT failed to comment on how the deviation would have lessened danger
to the animals. The UT statement did say that there are no monkeys on either campus
now. As reported in the Nov. 30, 2006 issue of The Independent Collegian,
"More than 300 mice and rats live in the basement of Wolfe and at least
6,000 mice and rats and one pig live in the basement of the Health
Education Building [on the Health Science Campus]." Director of UT animal labs Brent Martin was unavailable for comment.
Budkie and SAEN want to investigate UT's research labs. According to a SAEN press release, the group has "launched an
investigation of primate experimentation at the University of Toledo."
"We would like to see what's actually happening to the lives of the
animals," Budkie said. According to the statement released by UT, the research results are
expected to be published, but no date was available.
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