Vet Saw Firsthand That Many Cats Used in the Laboratory "Suffered Unnecessarily"
For
Immediate Release:
October
12, 2012
Contact:
Tasgola
Bruner 202-483-7382
Madison, Wis. — Former University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW) laboratory animal veterinarian Richard "Jim" Brown sent a letter today to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Office of Inspector General expressing concerns about the agency's failure to cite UW following PETA's allegations of Animal Welfare Act violations in cruel brain experiments on cats.
Dr. Brown provided veterinary oversight for these experiments and treatment to the cats during the period that is the subject of PETA’s allegations and told the USDA that the problems were well known and widespread. Brown resigned from UW in 2010 after his concerns about animal welfare problems in this and various other laboratories were not sufficiently addressed by faculty and staff.
"I saw this research firsthand. Many of these cats suffered unnecessarily, and I made my concerns known to the principal investigator, colleagues and the UW School of Medicine and Public Health [animal experimentation oversight committee] at the time," reads Dr. Brown's letter. "I'm confident a second, focused review of the surgical records by the [USDA] would show the same concerns the veterinary staff observed during my time at Wisconsin, and during my later review of these medical records…I also believe these are citable observations, under regulatory requirements that personnel have adequate training and demonstrated skill, and for adequate maintenance of records."
"If officials at the USDA won't believe their eyes when they read UW's own internal records showing that cats were inadequately sedated during surgery and not given proper veterinary attention, then maybe they will believe their ears when they hear it from the UW laboratory veterinarian who oversaw the experiments," says PETA Senior Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo.
Consistent with PETA's allegations to the USDA, Brown's letter goes into detail about laboratory staff’s alleged failure to adequately anesthetize and monitor cats during and after surgical procedures and failure to effectively address cats' chronic head wound infections and other serious health problems that were rampant in the laboratory.
PETA's complaint was based on internal UW documents and coincided with the release of disturbing never-before-seen photographs of a cat named Double Trouble, who had holes drilled into her skull, was intentionally deafened, and was killed and decapitated after she became too ill for the experiment to continue.
For more information, please visit PETA.org/DoubleTrouble.
