The U.S. Department of Agriculture fined the University of Wisconsin-Madison $35,286 for seven violations of the Animal Welfare Act following a four year investigation, according to a statement released Monday.
“We have chosen to accept USDA’s settlement agreement, which closes the investigation,” Eric Sandgren, director of the Research Animal Resources Center said in a summary abstract of the agreement.
The USDA began investigating animal care and use on UW-Madison’s campus in 2010, reviewing alleged violations of the AWA from 2007 to 2013, according to the release.
The seven citations arose from routine USDA inspections of the UW-Madison animal program and some were self-reported by the university, according to the release. All of the issues “were addressed at the time they were found or during subsequent program reviews.”
Two violations directly affected animal welfare. One of the animals fully recovered, according to the release.
“We acknowledge our responsibility for the care and well-being of the animals used in scientific research,” Sandgren said in the statement. “We don’t accept situations that could potentially put animals at undue risk or undermine our critical research mission, but we recognize that they sometimes will occur given the size and complexity of our research landscape.”
The USDA is also fining the university for the presence of expired drugs, insufficient internal communication of animal health issues to veterinarians in addition to housing and facilities issues including peeling paint, a broken light fixture clip, bent metal flashing on a barn and a slippery animal room floor.
The fine is one of the largest ever assessed against an animal laboratory, according to a statement from Justin Goodman, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals director of Laboratory Investigations Department.
The release indicates the fine was relatively large, about half of what the USDA allows, because of the university’s size, but the total number of violations was small given the size of the animal program.
“We believe the corrective actions made by UW-Madison in response to these events and the fact that most of the citable events did not directly affect animal welfare resulted in a relatively small fine, despite the fact that UW-Madison is one of the largest research universities in the country,” Sandgren said.
PETA is requesting the National Institutes of Health, which awards UW-Madison nearly a quarter of a billion dollars annually, stop its funding due to the violations of the Animal Welfare Act, according to Goodman.
“UW has violated this agreement and the public trust, and PETA is now calling on the NIH to cut funding from every project for which UW has been fined and reevaluate its eligibility for future funding,” Goodman said in the release.
Stop Animal Exploitation NOW, a nonprofit research watchdog based in Ohio, also filed a complaint with the USDA in January against UW-Madison for five negligent animal deaths, five negligent injuries, a primate escape and multiple incidents of failure to provide water and other care, according to a release. SAEN is also accusing the USDA of “dereliction of duty” in the investigation.
