Originally published April 13 2008
University of Colorado Caught in Cruel Animal Experiments by Whistleblower
by David Gutierrez, staff writer
(NaturalNews) A former University of Colorado employee went to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) with secret photos and videos of animals being subjected to painful and unnecessary procedures and conditions after his complaints to supervisors went ignored.
The former lab technician had worked for the University of Colorado at Denver's Health Sciences Center (UCHSC) for five years. "It really sort of surprised me that no one was willing to do anything about it within the lab," Karl Mann, the whistleblower, said.
Mann reported and recorded incidents including improperly anesthetized cats having their backs cut open, having hooks attached to their spinal ligaments and having pressure applied there; mice and rats kept in dirty and crowded cages, being given insufficient food and water, and drowning when their water bottles malfunctioned; a cat with an eye swollen shut who was left without veterinary care for a month; an improperly anesthetized rabbit who was killed with a needle through the heart; and a monkey waiting for four hours for a lab technician to arrive and then still another to be euthanized even after Mann reported that the animal was suffering from a prolapsed colon.
PETA filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health, charging that UCHSC failed to provide timely veterinary care and euthanasia, improperly trained animal care employees, improperly reviewed and approved experiments and used inadequate anesthesia during painful surgeries between August 2005 and March 2007, when Mann left his job. PETA also accuses UCHSC of carrying out unnecessarily painful experiments and providing substandard basic care. It has called on the university to dismiss all current members of its animal care and use committee for negligence.
PETA Research Director Kathy Guillermo said that while her organization opposes all research on animals, even those who believe in its importance must question it when they realize how it is being carried out.
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