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Animal-rights group fights for beagle's life Hoping to save the life of a beagle nicknamed "Stampy," UT Students Against Cruelty to Animals is attempting ot chang ehte way the University treats animals at the UT Animal Resources Center. According ot SACA, Stampy was bred by Harlan, the largest distributor of research animals in the world. Along with Stampy, the UT Animal Resources Center housed two other beagles this semester for the private Austin-based company, Cedra, which provides biotechnical services for the pharmaceutical industry. Stampy still survives, but the other two beagles have been "murdered" for profit, SACA members said. The dogs' organs were used to make tissue cultures by Cedra, which sells the cultures for $150 to $400 each. Jerry Fineg, director of the UT Animal Resources Center, said the center is saving animals' lies by using in-vitro testing. In-vitro testing means that cells are isolated from one animal and artificially maintained. "Instead of having to kill another animal for an organ, the cells of the the organs are reproduced," Fineg said. But SACA believes that not even one animal should have to die. "When we base our research on animals that have nothing in common with us, we have no right to take their lives," said Will Potter, SACA spokesperson and journalism junior. The Medical Research Modernization Committee animal experimentation has had little to do with medical advances, adding that billions of dollars invested in it could be better spent on different kinds of research. However, Fineg said he considers animal research a valuable tool for tracing human diseases. "The basic physiology and metabolic processes are the same," he said. " Potter said he believes there is only one reason why animal research has continued in the manner it has, adding that researchers' careers are based on taking animals' lives to fund their research. "[Researchers] have the ARC running, so they're making money, so they're getting grants, so they're publishing documents, so they're bringing prestige to the University," Potter said. SACA claims that maintenance of the animals is poor, and the cage where Stampy is housed has feces. Furthermore, they said the dog's hindquarters and tail are yellow with urine. Elina Korshukin, a member of SACA and a business freshman, said she visits Stampy often, calling it her moral obligation to comfort the dog. "Who's speaking for the animals?" Korshukin said. Students should go together to the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee's Dec. 12 meeting to voice their opinion, Korshukin said. In a letter sent to Fineg last week, Potter requested to know how much profit the University is making through animal experimentation. Under the Texas Open Records Act, a letter must be presented in order for public access to government or private information, and a response must be given within 10 days. But Fineg said he just received the letter from Potter on Tuesday. ARC has until Dec. 11 to reply.
An investigation is underway at a UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center animal breeding facility near Elgin, where 42 rhesus monkeys died of heat stroke due to a thermostat malfunction last week. When temperatures dropped below freezing in Bastrop County Jan. 22, the thermostat system failed to shut off in one of the nine buildings at the center's Department of Veterinary Sciences, a UT System component. Instead of shutting down at 70 degrees Fahrenheit as programmed, the heating system continued to heat the room to 125 degrees. The monkeys were last seen alive during a 1:50 a.m. check by personnel. However, when employees arrived at work last Monday morning, 42 out of 55 monkeys were dead. Staff veterinary pathologists' autopsy reports showed heat stroke was the cause of death. Employees will be offered counseling over the incident, said Michael Keeling, chairman of the Department of Veterinary Sciences. Keeling said a certified installation and start-up of a new heating system took place Jan. 9 and was operating for 13 days before the malfunction. Keeling added that a "fail-safe" mechanism is present in all nine buildings in case a thermostat fails to shut off automatically. "On this particular unit, it failed," Keeling said, adding that M.D. Anderson and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are currently conducting separate investigations. Immediately upon discovering the deceased monkeys, employees began opening doors to ventilate the building. Emergency veterinarians were called to care for the surviving primates. Veterinary staff then notified the USDA, the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare at the National Institutes of Health and the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care. Keeling said it is routine for USDA and other regulatory agencies to be called in the case of accidents of this severity. The USDA began its investigation Wednesday to determine the exact malfunction of the system. David Head, regional director for USDA, said the department expects to conclude the investigation within the next few weeks. "It is a priority of ours, and we are treating it as such," Head said. M.D. Anderson officials said the purpose of the investigation is not to assign blame but to ensure that such an accident doesn't happen again. John Mendelsohn, president of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, said that the cancer center is committed to identifying and fixing the malfunction. "Research animals are critical if we are going to continue making significant progress against cancer," he said. "We have a responsibility to provide for the welfare for these animals." Rhesus monkeys are small, brownish-yellow macaques used extensively in research. Will Potter, a journalism junior and member of Students Against Cruelty to Animals, said the use of the monkeys for research is unethical. "Animal research tries to say two things that [monkeys] are so similar to us we should derive valuable research from them, but they're so different that we have no qualms in sacrificing them," Potter said. The Department of Veterinary Sciences operates as a component of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. The facility houses 3,100 animals from 12 species, including monkeys, goats and rodents. There are 115 employees, including veterinarians, animal handlers, researchers and administrators, who care for the animals. |