UW Research Lab Fined For Animal Welfare Act Violations

The University of Wisconsin’s animal research lab has agreed to pay more than $30,000 in fines for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act.

Animal rights groups that have complained about the lab’s treatment of animal research subjects say the fines announced this week confirm their claims that the lab has been neglecting and mistreating animals for more than a decade. The fine imposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s medical division includes burn injuries to a cat that was left too long on a heating pad during a surgery.

Justin Goodman of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) says that violation illustrates what’s wrong with the regulations at all animal research labs.

“This was a situation where they were performing invasive surgery on her brain and implanting a device so they can record her brain activity with electrodes, and that’s not the thing they got cited for,” said Goodman. “They got cited for is carelessly leaving her to burn on a heating pad. So really at UW-Madison and other places, the worst of what happens to animals is completely legal.”

The director of the research lab, Eric Sandgren, says only two of the seven violations the lab was fined for were directly related to animal welfare. The others involved the presence of expired drugs in the lab, peeling paint in one facility, and poor communication between veterinarians and researchers about mistakes made during procedures.

“You know, we really do try to be perfect, and when we’re not we try to figure out where things broke down so it doesn’t happen again,” said Sandgren.

An Ohio-based group called Stop Animal Exploitation Now has filed new complaints about several monkeys injured and one that died during experimental procedures at the UW lab last year. The group’s director says federal inspectors have begun investigating those claims.