Commentary: Monkey business bust

An animal rights group is demanding an investigation of the University of Washington primate center for its treatment of research animals.

It’s one of dozens the group puts forward on an annual basis.

Using the Seattle-based university’s records, Ohio-based Stop Animal Exploitation Now filed a federal animal welfare complaint, citing 21 problems at the lab during the past two years, according to news reports.The records show that several monkeys escaped their cages. Some were injured, and two monkeys died following medical procedures.

A spokesman for USDA, which regulates the treatment of research animals, said that the department would consider the complaint, adding that it is too early to know if the university violated the federal Animal Welfare Act.

The UW lab houses hundreds of animals used in research. It’s the largest lab of its kind in the nation.Its primate center houses more than 700 monkeys, macaques and baboons used principally for research on AIDS vaccines and medical experiments to help understand brain function and neurological diseases.

Regardless of people’s opinions of the degree of humane handling afforded lab animals, it’s doubtful that many would forego the use of vaccines or medical procedures perfected on animals if it would save their life or that of a loved one.

The group singled out 21 incidents in UW records from 2010 to 2011, including five cases of monkeys escaping from their cages and sustaining cuts and bruises in the process.

“In the time we’ve been looking at these things, I haven’t seen another facility that had this number of primate escapes,” said Michael Budkie, SAEN’s executive director.

University records show that tips of fingers or toes of two primates were inadvertently torn off. Two other animals suffered similar injuries to their tails, requiring amputation. One monkey was found dead in its cage after having plugs implanted in its skull for a neuroscience experiments. Another monkey had to be euthanized after a surgical error, an infant monkey suffered a burn on its foot and an adult cut its hand on scissors it grabbed from an attendant.

In 2011, USDA fined the university $10,893 for allowing a monkey to starve to death and conducting unauthorized surgeries on several others.Its last two USDA inspections found no violations.

Telling the truth

Ohio-based SAEN regularly combs through the records of U.S. research centers, looking for potential violations to publicize. The organization isn’t attempting to reform medical experimentation, but it is frankly opposed to all animal research—period. On its website, SAEN’s slogan is, “Exposing the truth to wipe out animal experimentation.”

At least they’re honest.

To achieve that end, SAEN’s recent actions included:

• Protests against Harvard University, Princeton, Indiana Universityand numerous other institutions conducting animal research, all demanding investigations into alleged abuses
• A demonstration as part of World Laboratory Animal Liberation Week last week in which SAEN and other animal rights groups led some 75 protesters in a march on the UCLA campus chanting, “Human freedom, animal rights”
• A complaint filed with USDA and other agencies demanding an investigation of the SNBL lab in Alice, Texas, where two macaque monkeys died from tuberculosis and another died from a form of polio, allegedly threatening “the safety of the people in Texas and the United States,” according to SAEN Executive DirectorBudkie

Now, if that were all that protestors from SAEN or other groups did, it would represent nothing more than expressions of their First Amendment rights of free speech and perhaps examples of rigorous policing of research institutions that conduct experiments with live animals.

Obnoxious, perhaps, but not illegal.

However, the activists involved in campaigns against animal research have notoriously turned to violence as a standard tactic, including vandalism against laboratory officials and death threats against executives of companies that own and manage animal labs. The Stop Huntington Labs campaign has been marked by extreme threats of bodily harm, damage to property, vandalism, break-ins, destruction of research facilities and numerous attempts to “free” lab animals.

As if monkeys or rats can be turned into pets or released into the wild.

But the truly troublesome aspect of the protests that SAEN and others of its ilk engages in is that its accusations taint the targets no matter what the outcome of any investigations. It’s similar to accusing someone of sexual abuse. Even if the person accused of such a crime is eventually cleared of the charges, the implications of the alleged misconduct remain as a permanent stain on their reputation.

Which, to be honest, is exactly what the agitators who decry medical research on lab animals are hoping will happen.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dan Murphy, a veteran food-industry journalist and commentator.

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