3 labs are cited for animal violations

June 13, 2009|Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Government inspection reports cited three research laboratories for a host of animal welfare violations, ranging from problems with surgeries that forced researchers to euthanize a dog and a primate, to leaving a live hamster in a walk-in freezer.

The reports, uncovered by an animal rights group, detail violations at BioReliance Corp., Charles River Laboratories Inc., and Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

The animal rights group Stop Animal Exploitation Now, based in Milford, Ohio, criticized the US Agriculture Department for not taking tough enforcement action against the facilities.

"These facilities should face serious consequences," said the group's executive director, Michael Budkie.

The USDA, which is charged with enforcing the Animal Welfare Act's standards for research animals, said it did enter into an out-of-court $10,000 financial settlement with one of the institutions, Charles River. But that settlement was for a different incident, in May, 2008, when too-hot temperatures led to the deaths of primates.

Charles River announced last August that 32 primates died in May 2008 at its Sparks, Nev., lab, saying the cause was an incorrect climate-control operation.

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