University of Texas
Employee fired for reporting animal abuse

December 13, 2012 - originally posted in Dallas Observer

Donna Pulkrabek says she was pushed out of her job at UT Southwestern in May after reporting mistreatment of laboratory animals even though, as manager of the school’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC),  that was her job. Says the lawsuit, which you can read here,  UTSW fired Pulkrabek after she began telling higher-ups that the school was “grossly non-compliant with the federal requirements.”

According to a lawsuit filed by Pulkrabek, she had raised concerns of animal mistreatment — mice dying in freezers or in overheated rooms, among other things, her attorney explained — to the Office of Institutional Compliance, then to the IACUC, then to the school’s dean of basic research. At every level, she says her concerns were ignored.

It wasn’t until she filed a formal complaint with the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW), part of the National Institutes of Health, that she says she got the attention of the administration. Within a week, she was placed on administrative leave and ultimately fired.

Now, a second UT Southwestern employee (who is represented by the same attorney as Pulkrabek) is claiming retaliation for reporting animal abuse. Patrick Thobe, who was hired in 2007 to oversee the treatment of UT Southwestern lab animals, says in a lawsuit that he was fired in September for reporting “UT Southwestern’s long and ugly history of mistreatment of animals.” Test animals include dogs, goats, cats, mice, frogs, rabbits, sheep, pigs, etc.

The facts of his case parallel those of Pulkrabek’s: Reports to OIC, IACUC and a dean were ignored. A report to OLAW was met with retaliation. His lawsuit does, at least, provide a very detailed list of how animals were allegedly mistreated.

• Live test animals were found in the carcass freezer. The concern with this situation, obviously, would be that live animals would be permitted to freeze to death. 
  

• Test animals received surgery without pain killers. These surgeries included, but were not limited to, arterial and venal catheterizations, tracheotomies and ovaryectomies. 
  

• Test animals were left in cages in excessive heat where they died of heat exhaustion. 
  

• Test animals received unauthorized surgeries. Unauthorized surgeries means that they were not approved by the IACUC Committee. 
  

• Unauthorized toe amputations on test animals. The toe amputations were not approved by IACUC 
  

• Test animals were given a lethal dose of radiation without authorization of the IACUC. 
  

• The death of a frog colony of approximately 40-50 was not reported. 
  

• Six incidents of unauthorized laboratory housing. The concern was the test animals were in an unauthorized location where they may not receive food or water or daily health checks. 
  

• Test animals received unauthorized interspleenic injections of tumor cells. 
  

• Test animals were subjected to unauthorized circadian rhythm experiments. 
  

• Test animals were injected with femoral arterial dye without the authorization from IACUC. 
  

• Test animals were provided a expired anesthetic. One year past expiration. The concern is that expired anesthetics have the potential to break down into painful metabolites causing unnecessary pain to the test animals. 
  

• Test animals died due to complications of intubations. The intubations were not carried out properly causing unnecessary death to the test animals.
  

UT Southwestern was served with Pulkrabek's lawsuit last week and has not yet filed a response. Thobe's was filed yesterday. I've passed it along to UT Southwestern spokesman Michael Berman for comment, but here's guessing the response will be the same as it was in the Pulkrabek case.

"UT Southwestern does not comment on pending litigation, but we adhere to the highest standards in the care and use of animals in research. UT Southwestern fully complies with all applicable regulations and monitoring requirements, and its animal research program is registered with, and accredited by, all appropriate regulatory and accrediting entities."

Source

Animals burned, mutilated and neglected at
University of Texas Medical Branch!

Picture credit: PETA

by PETA

An insider at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) has contacted PETA to report that dogs, monkeys, sheep, goats, ferrets, and mice are being used in cruel experiments in which their bodies are burned, mutilated, and cut open and that these animals are also suffering as a result of inadequate veterinary care, improperly trained staff, careless handling, and severe neglect.

The whistleblower says that experimenter Daniel Traber has subjected sheep, pigs, and mice to third-degree burns on up to 40 percent of their bodies and forced the animals to inhale smoke from burning cotton. UTMB experimenters also intentionally caused spinal cord and sciatic nerve injuries in sheep. One sheep who was subjected to back surgery reportedly could not stand for three days following the surgery and was given no pain relief.

Our source also reports the following:

• UTMB faculty members cut open dogs and surgically implanted tubes into their colons for irritable bowel experiments. One dog reportedly died during surgery, and another died in pain following surgery when staff members did not provide anesthetics and were apparently unable to use the monitoring equipment correctly.
• A macaque monkey—a highly-social being for whom social contact is necessary to maintain physical and mental health—was confined by herself to a stainless steel cage in a room where she had no contact with and no opportunity to see or hear other nonhuman primates.
• Several sheep and one pig suffered serious injuries, including a broken leg and trauma so severe that it caused one sheep's intestines to penetrate her chest cavity.
• Mice died, most likely as a result of dehydration, after staff members failed to notice that the animals did not have access to water.

PETA has repeatedly reached out to UTMB through letters and phone calls in an attempt to discuss these alleged violations with the university directly, but our correspondence and calls have been totally ignored. Now, PETA has filed an urgent complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture calling for an immediate investigation.

You can also be a voice for the animals at UTMB. Please take a minute of your time today to urge UTMB's executive assistant to the president, Jandee Alarid, to immediately conduct a thorough investigation of the university's laboratories and dismiss any employees whose incompetence, negligence, or outright cruelty are found to have contributed to increased pain and misery for animals.

Please CLICK HERE to sign the petition.

Picture credit: PETA