IMPORTANT - USDA Audit and How It May Apply to UCSF ... World Week for Animals in Labs - April 22-30

[Guest guest]

Dear Advocates for Animals: USDA Audit and How It May Apply to UCSF One of the claims made in our (Vigil for Animals') leaflet to stop the use of dogs in vivisection is that UCSF's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) is not effectively reviewing research protocols before it approves them. In that regard, there is some evidence that UCSF's IACUC approved several protocols involving dogs - without making sure that dogs were the appropriate species to use and without fully comprehending the rationale for the numbers of dogs to be used. There is also some question as to whether UCSF's IACUC, like many IACUC's at universities throughout the country, is ensuring that principal investigators conduct legitimate searches for "alternatives to procedures that may cause more than momentary or slight pain or distress to the animals," as required

by the Animal Welfare Act. The poor performances of IACUC's at universities across the country, including UCSF, brings into question the scientific validity, as well the legality, of some research projects approved by these committees. In fact, a recent audit conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in October 2005 determined that "some IACUC's are not effectively monitoring animal care activities or reviewing protocols." Further, in fiscal years 2002-04, the audit found that 29% (319 out of approximately 1,100) of research facilities in the USA were in violation of the Animal Welfare Act regarding consideration and documentation of the availability of alternatives to painful procedures on animals. And something that may explain UCSF's poor accounting* of its dogs, the auditors stated "13 of 16 facilities we visited misreported the numbers of animals used in

research." *For over a year, UCSF has not been able to document the disposition of dozens of German shepherds (some just puppies) used in a UCSF research project that was terminated in late 2004 - despite a lawsuit to obtain the documents. The audit by the USDA just gives us all the more reason to be concerned about the animals at UCSF - and thus all the more reason to demonstrate and spread the word about the ineptitude of all of the government bureaucracies involved: USDA, UCSF - and the National Institutes of Health, which reviews and approves research protocols supposedly based on their scientific merit. To see the audit, go to: http://www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/33002-03-SF.pdf World Week for Animals in

Labs (WWAIL) is fast approaching - April 22-30. Anybody interested in hooking up and planning something with Vigil for Animals for WWAIL, please let me know. We will likely be gathering to discuss what we will do in the coming week. Bob O'Brien