PETA targeting U. laboratories

The University of Utah is the latest target of animal-rights activists after an undercover investigator secretly videotaped her way through eight months of employment at on-campus laboratories.

After anonymous complaints were received by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the Virginia-based organization sent in an investigator to determine what was going on with hundreds of animals being tested and used for experimentation at the U.'s animal laboratories.

"To subject animals to invasive experiments is bad enough, but allowing them to languish in pain and misery without veterinary care is despicable," Kathy Guillermo, PETA's vice president of laboratory investigations, said.

PETA's allegations include animals found inside the Nora Eccles Harrison Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute and the Comparitive Medicine Center that were sick or injured and left for days without care between February and October of this year. Videotapes include monkeys deprived of water in order to motivate them to cooperate with experiments, and paralyzed mice and rodents with tumors nearly the size of their own bodies left to "suffer and die in their cages," which Guillermo said is a violation of federal guidelines in the treatment of lab mice.

PETA has conducted three undercover investigations — others at the University of Colorado and the Oregon National Primate Research Center — in the past two years, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has responded by formally citing only two of their allegations, leaving a "black mark" on the lab's paperwork, she said. "The fact that this is what we believe are serious violations is what's considered 'business as usual,' is what concerns us."

However, Tom Parks, U. vice president for research, contends that the school's research, which stems from any one of at least 550 active animal projects, supports and facilitates exploration in many fields and adheres to federally-mandated protocol and research procedures to ensure high caliber results. He said the U. will "thoroughly evaluate these allegations" with an extensive internal investigation and provide a response to any agency that asks.

"Animal research is conducted only when the project has valuable scientific purpose and is aimed at combatting disease and relieving human suffering," Parks said, adding that all 26 animal facilities on campus at the U. "meet all federal regulations and the highest voluntary standards."

PETA is calling for the school to address the issues and for the state to look into changing laws that make shelter animals available for laboratory use. Utah and Minnesota are the only two states where "pound-seizure" laws require animals be made available to labs. Otherwise, breeders supply animals, but at a higher cost.