After New Year's it was revealed that Federal animal welfare inspectors who visited UW in December found twenty violations on campus. Violations included dogs that did not receive adequate veterinary care despite vomiting and failing to produce urine and unsanitary operating rooms. Amidst an uproar over the ethics of animal research and an argument about whether or not UW should be participating in animal research, focus has drifted from what really plagues the UW animal research programs, namely a lack of oversight.
UW has the second largest animal research program of its kind in the country, relying heavily on animals to advance progress in a myriad of fields. Right now there are approximately 100,000 or more animals participating in some 1,200 research studies at over 50 locations. The size and breadth of UW's animal research is huge. Participating species include not only the ubiquitous mouse, but also chickens, pigs, dogs and of course the ever controversial primates.
Given the size of UW's animal research program it comes as no surprise that violations occur. It seems unlikely that every research study is policed and each principle investigator, or head researcher, is monitored to ensure proper animal treatment. As the UW animal research program is most likely here to stay, the campus community and the state of Wisconsin must demand higher standards for the treatment of research animals. But high standards mean little if oversight and enforcement of animal research regulations is lax.
If there is something to take away from the joint federal investigation, it is that UW needs to improve the organization and oversight of its animal research programs. UW should be motivated to do so by the 200-300 million federal dollars received every year for animal research.
Currently there are six oversight committees on campus of which one, the All Campus Animal Care and Use Committee, can overrule the five other committees. The Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare wants UW to restructure these committees and the oversight process in order to both prevent animal violations from occurring and to quickly identify and address violations when they do occur.
The issue here is not about the condition of the animals at the time of inspection. OLAW, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, stated in a letter to Dr. William S. Mellon, Interim Associate Dean for Research Policy, on December 18 that the inspection ""found all the animals examined to be in good condition."" UW needs to address the largely administrative based issues that effect the animal research on campus. An improvement in oversight will reduce instances of inadequate veterinary care and ensure the consideration of and use of less painful procedures on research animals and benefit the program as a whole. While the university's large animal research program can make oversight challenging, UW must work to ensure adequate oversight or face losing both public support for animal research and Federal funding.
