NABR's Misinformation Cripples Animal Welfare and Scientific Integrity

By Christopher J. Heyde

According to the US government's primary animal protection law an estimated 25 million birds, rats and mice being experimented on each year in US research facilities are no longer considered "animals." In 1970, Congress amended the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) to ensure decent care and treatment for all warm blooded animals used for experimentation, testing and teaching. This year, however, one US Senator took it upon himself to weaken the AWA by excluding birds, rats and mice from the Act. Birds, rats and mice, who comprise approximately 95 percent of all animals used in research, have now been denied protection under the law (see Winter 2001 AWI Quarterly).

This was the 259th rat to receive an injection to the brain-not a single virus had appeared and as the researcher put it, "it's not working." (PETA)

In one of his last acts as a Senator, Jesse Helms (R-NC) handed the National Association for Biomedical Research (NABR) an objective it has pursued since its founding by the president of the world's largest laboratory animal breeder, Charles River Laboratories, over 20 years ago - the evisceration of the AWA. NABR and its preceding organizations (the National Society for Medical Research and the Association for Biomedical Research) have opposed every piece of legislation to protect animals in laboratories introduced in Congress.

Through a campaign of misinformation and hysteria, NABR convinced Helms to ignore overwhelming scientific, Congressional, judicial, public and international support for the protection of these animals. Apparently, Helms and his supporters disregarded the only scientific survey conducted on the subject by scientists Harold Herzog of Western Carolina University and Scott Plous of Wesleyan University, in which 73.9 percent of researchers who were polled supported the inclusion of rats and mice under the AWA and 67.9 percent supported inclusion of birds. An informal survey conducted by Dr. Harry Rozmiarek, Chief Laboratory Animal Medicine Veterinarian at the University of Pennsylvania also shows the overwhelming support of laboratory animal veterinarians. Several researchers present at NABR's national conference in May of last year reported that a poll, by show of hands, revealed that the vast majority of those in attendance supported inclusion of birds, rats and mice under the AWA, but the Association quickly denied any such survey took place.

The necks of these mice and 21 others were crushed with a metal cage-card holder in violation of UNC policy and NIH guidelines. One mouse was found paralyzed and alive in the dead-animal cooler. (PETA)

NABR convinced Helms that Congress never intended the AWA to provide protection to these animals despite 30 years of clear legislative intent, the law itself, and judicial affirmation of that law. Former US Senator Bob Dole, who supported the 1970 amendment to the AWA and sponsored its 1985 amendments, wrote in support of including birds, rats and mice under the Act stating "that the AWA applied to 'all warm blooded animals,' we certainly did not intend to exclude 95 percent of the animals used in biomedical research laboratories."

As Helms stood on the Senate floor and professed that there was no need for AWA protection, multiple reports of animal mistreatment and abuse surfaced at major research institutions/universities, shining more light on the urgent need for USDA oversight. Reports from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), University of Connecticut and the University of California at San Francisco detail horrendous apparent violations of National Institutes of Health guidelines. In fact, videotape recorded between October 2001 and April 2002 and released by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals shows a UNC-CH researcher using scissors to cut the heads off conscious, unanesthetized young rats before removing their brains. On the tape he states that he knows this is a violation of his protocol submitted to the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, but ignores it for his convenience. The video also shows an apparent lack of adequate veterinary care with numerous moribund rodents left suffering until they died. Repeatedly, mice, who were supposed to have been killed, were found alive in the dead animal cooler and a staff person describes how he found "a whole slew of rats" alive in the cooler.

Protocols at the UNC forbid tumors larger than 2 cm, however, it was common to find mice whose tumors were much larger. (PETA)

At the University of Connecticut rats were found dead and dying in a room that was 94ºF. Chickens were left without proper air circulation and suffocated. In April 2001, two of four crates of newly received mice were damaged and open with mice dead and missing. An employee at the University of California in San Francisco anonymously reported "For the third time in just over one month, live mice were found in the dead animal freezer, indicating improper euthanasia technique (failure to follow CO2 narcosis, with physical method such as cervical dislocation)."

The numbers of birds, rats and mice being used in research is expected to grow exponentially with use of transgenics and other new avenues of research. Now, more than ever, protections are needed to ensure humane treatment of the tens of millions of animals used for experimentation, and to prevent scientific fraud as a result of poor care, neglect or abuse of the animals. One would hope that the scientific research community and Congress would realize that NABR is not representing the interests of scientific advancement or humane animal care, but is in fact detrimental to both.