Information Request about UBC’s Animal Research Heads to Inquiry Before Privacy Commissioner

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) November 7, 2011 --

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Information Request about UBC’s Animal Research Heads to Inquiry Before Privacy Commissioner

Welcome visit Our WebSite:

http://stopubcanimalresearch.org/

VANCOUVER, BC – Late last week, Stop UBC Animal Research submitted a brief to the BC Office of the Information Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) as part of a formal inquiry into UBC’s continued refusal to disclose information about its extensive animal research programs. Attempts to mediate a settlement between the animal rights group and UBC had failed, prompting the inquiry. In its submission to the OIPC, the animal advocates claimed UBC’s recent and selected release of information was arbitrary and capricious, inadequate, misleading, and largely useless in helping the public assess the university’s experiments on animals. Stop UBC Animal Research wrote to UBC today asking the university to answer a number of key questions about the university’s data. (Scroll down to read questions to UBC)

On October 29, UBC released limited details about its animal research, including data on the numbers and types of animals used in experiments. The UBC data, which can be reviewed here, revealed that in 2010, "211,764 animals have been involved in 982 research protocols in 2010." That number is far higher than previously thought.

“UBC’s release of selective data about its animal research programs raises more questions than answers them, creates confusion, is at odds with previous official university statements, and further underscores the importance of disclosing more comprehensive information,” wrote Brian Vincent, Director of Stop UBC Animal Research, in the group’s letter to UBC today.

In its letter, Stop UBC Animal Research asked UBC to clarify issues related to the data the university had released. The group also requested UBC disclose additional information including:

*Data on species of animals used in research. While UBC released data that includes "type" of animal it does not specify species of animal.

*Research protocols

*Funding sources to determine how much is taxpayer funded and how much is paid for by corporate interests

*Necropsy and veterinary reports

*Lab inspection reports

*Any citations of animal care violations at UBC

QUESTIONS TO UBC
Q. Why won't UBC release data on the numbers of animals used by species? UBC officials have claimed "there are simply too many different species to list them all individually."

UBC's data only includes numbers of animals by "type" not by species. As a result, the public has no way of knowing, for instance, what specific "large mammals" were used in research. Did UBC experiment on dogs or cats in 2010? How many non-human primates were used? And what other "large mammals” were used in experiments?

UBC's response to this question -- that there are too many different species to list them all -- makes little sense since every year UBC is required to provide data, including the numbers of animals by species, to the Canadian Council on Animal Care.

Q. Will UBC agree to participate in a public debate about animal research?

To date, UBC has refused to agree to a public debate. Such a debate would provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and offer an opportunity for a vigorous discussion about what has become a hot-button issue.

Q: UBC indicated in media stories and in its release of information that 31 animals were used in Category E procedures. Yet, UBC officials claimed in those same reports that those animals received anesthesia. How can UBC officials make such claims when, according to the CCAC, Category E procedures are defined as "Procedures which cause severe pain near, at, or above the pain tolerance threshold of unanesthetized conscious animals?" [emphasis added]

In its release of data, UBC noted that 31 animals were used in Category E procedures but also claimed the animals received anesthesia. Yet, Category E specifically notes that the animals used in such procedures are "unanesthesized." From the Canadian Council on Animal Care's website (http://ccac.ca/en_/standards/policies/policy-categories_of_invasiveness):

"CATEGORY E - Procedures which cause severe pain near, at, or above the pain tolerance threshold of unanesthetized conscious animals

This Category of Invasiveness is not necessarily confined to surgical procedures, but may include exposure to noxious stimuli or agents whose effects are unknown; exposure to drugs or chemicals at levels that (may) markedly impair physiological systems and which cause death, severe pain, or extreme distress; completely new biomedical experiments which have a high degree of invasiveness; behavioral studies about which the effects of the degree of distress are not known; use of muscle relaxants or paralytic drugs without anesthetics; burn or trauma infliction on unanesthetized animals; a euthanasia method not approved by the CCAC; any procedures (e.g., the injection of noxious agents or the induction of severe stress or shock) that will result in pain which approaches the pain tolerance threshold and cannot be relieved by analgesia (e.g., when toxicity testing and experimentally-induced infectious disease studies have death as the endpoint)."

Q. Why did UBC maintain for more than a year it used 100,000 animals in research annually when its 2010 data indicates more than 200,000 animals were used? Did the number of animals used at UBC dramatically double in just one year?

UBC's numbers are shocking. Until recently, UBC had maintained it used about 100,000 animals every year in research. But the university's 2010 numbers show that number more than doubled. Furthermore, the UBC data reveals that nearly 70,000 animals were used in Category D procedures. According to the CCAC website:

"CATEGORY D - Experiments which cause moderate to severe distress or discomfort

Possible examples: major surgical procedures conducted under general anesthesia, with subsequent recovery; prolonged (several hours or more) periods of physical restraint; induction of behavioral stresses such as maternal deprivation, aggression, predator-prey interactions; procedures which cause severe, persistent or irreversible disruption of sensorimotor organization; the use of Freund's Complete Adjuvant (see CCAC policy statement on: acceptable immunological procedures ).

Other examples include induction of anatomical and physiological abnormalities that will result in pain or distress; the exposure of an animal to noxious stimuli from which escape is impossible; the production of radiation sickness; exposure to drugs or chemicals at levels that impair physiological systems."

It is deeply troubling so many animals were exposed to such trauma in the name of "science."

Q. Why won't UBC release the following information:

· Research protocols

· Funding sources to determine how much research is taxpayer funded and how much is paid for by corporate interests

· Necropsy and veterinary reports

· Lab inspection reports

· Any citations of animal care violations at UBC

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More information can be found online at http://stopubcanimalresearch.org/

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