Article: UCSF Biting the Hand that Feeds It

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Dear Advocates for Animals: Please note Op-Ed article I am attempting to get published in SF CHRONICLE AND SF BAY GUARDIAN - so far unsuccessfully. Anyhow, FYI, please read. Bob O'Brien ---- University of California, San Francisco Biting the Hand that Feeds It by Bob O'Brien Why must taxpaying citizens retain lawyers or petition their legislators to get information generated by our tax dollars? This is a question that in a functional democracy one should never have to ask, because information would be readily available upon request. Regrettably, that is not the case in our society today. The following may point to some of the reasons why such dysfunction exists. The gist of the matter is that officials in

the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and university administrators associated with medical research are directing our tax dollars toward pseudo-scientific research projects involving animals. Most of the funding for these undeserving projects in California comes from our tax dollars via the NIH (at the federal level) and the University of California (at the state level). The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) receives a large amount of funding of grants from the NIH - over $450 million in grants annually, an estimated $200 million of which goes toward research that exploits animals. In a sense, there are two kinds of medical research: that which is mainly motivated by profit and that which is not so motivated by profit as inspired by the quest for scientific facts. As one might guess from the figures above, much research is motivated by profit - and that means valid scientific inquiry takes a back

seat to the almighty dollar. Thus it should come as no surprise that advocates for animals are often finding fault with UCSF research projects, approved (or rubber-stamped) by a committee with the NIH or UCSF so that the prized grant money can be gotten. And further it should be no surprise that UCSF administrators are constantly stonewalling animal-welfare advocates attempting to document information or register concerns about the various projects involving animals at the university - lest the grant money be stalled or stopped. For example, over the past three years Vigil for Animals, a small grassroots group of advocates for animals, has written 4 letters detailing questions and concerns to UCSF's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), whose function is to review and approve research protocols involving animals at the university. And, according to the Animal Welfare Act, the IACUC is also to

"review, and if warranted, investigate concerns involving the care and use of animals at the research facility resulting from public complaints." To this date, Vigil for Animals has not received a single response from the IACUC. However, two university administrators (who were not members of the IACUC) provided the group with two glossed-over responses that did not address any of the group's specific concerns. Consequently many of their questions have been resubmitted to UCSF for response, thanks to the help of Valerie Tulier, District Representative with the office of state Senator Carole Migden. Further, my personal trials and tribulations to get information on UCSF's care and use of animals is another example of the university's stonewalling. Frustrated with waiting for responses to 5 information requests (dating back to August 2004) made under the California Public Records Act, I retained a lawyer who

filed a lawsuit in the California Superior Court late last year to force the university to fulfill my requests. Subsequently UCSF finally sent me a response to my requests, yet the information they sent was incomplete as it was missing illegally redacted material and the documented disposition of dozens of German shepherd dogs used in a cardiology research project. The information remains incomplete to this date, while my lawyer and UCSF's attorneys attempt to settle the matter out of court. Taxpaying citizens who work diligently in requesting, reviewing and then questioning information on projects, funded by their tax dollars and conducted at a local university, should not be ignored. Though researchers and UCSF want and need grant money, some of which goes into university coffers, school administrators should consider who fund their programs and hand them their paychecks. For even a dog

knows better than to bite the hand that feeds it. ___________ Bob O'Brien [415-751-3756] 311 11th Ave, #15 San Francisco, CA 94118

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