Utah is one of five states that require animal shelters using public funds to turn over animals that no one adopts to research facilities.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a Virginia-based organization, brought this issue to light with its recent investigation into test animals used at the University of Utah.

Local animal-rights groups aren't happy with the law, but they believe it would be an uphill battle to change it.

"We think it's unfortunate that Utah has this law," said Temma Martin, spokeswoman for the Utah-based Best Friends Animal Society. "We are against animal research of any kind."

She said just overturning this law wouldn't do anything on its own. That's because nobody is enforcing the law.

"There are shelters that do it willingly," she said, noting that additional revenue is the motivation for many underfunded shelters. According to Utah's "experimental animals" code, the minimum fee shelters can charge for animal-testing adoptions is $15 for cats and $20 for dogs. That's the fee most shelters charge. Even if that law were overturned, Martin said, there would also need to be a new Utah law that prohibits shelters from providing animals to research groups. She also wonders if that law would be enforced.Because the Humane Society (of Utah) does not receive funding from the state, its facility is not subject to the law.

Research by The Humane Society found that besides Utah, Minnesota and Oklahoma also require public shelters to turn over animals to research facilities. In addition, Ohio and Iowa also require it, if a research facility makes a formal request.

Fifteen states currently have laws prohibiting shelters from providing animals for research — California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont and West Virginia.

In addition, some of the remaining 30 states have laws that only allow researchers access to animals from publicly funded shelters under certain circumstances, and others have no law at all — leaving the issue to local discretion.

"There has been very little activity in recent years to change state laws on the pound-seizure issue," said Martin Stephens, vice president of Animal Research Issues for the Humane Society of the U.S. The Humane Society of Utah also stated: "Furthermore, the HSU advocates an end to the use of animals for research when the procedures performed are harmful to the animal and cause undue pain and suffering."

Martin said some may argue that most of the these animals are unwanted, and if not adopted, will be euthanized anyway.

"That's just a cop out. At least their life ends without any suffering," Martin said of euthanasia, which is not the case with animal-research practices.

"I've heard of cases where a lost pet has been found at a research facility," she said, stressing that some lost pets do end up at such facilities.

That's why a microchip for identification is important for all pets, she said.

Martin said the last formal discussion she recalls to change Utah's pound-seizure law was in 1992.

Since it took a decade to change Utah's animal-cruelty law, she said there's no quick fix here.

e-mail: lynn@desnews.com