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PETA is filing a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against the University of Washington (UW) over its refusal to disclose who exactly is on its ironically named Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) – a group that must ensure that all laws on the protection of animals is observed in school laboratories, but it was miserably failed to prevent the death of animals from hunger, dehydration, suffocation, burns, blood loss and other reasons.
The Washington State Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) requires all governing body meetings of government-funded agencies to be open to the public. The IACUC – which lives up to the description of the governing body under the OPMA – currently conducts most of its activities out of the public eye.
When attendees reveal their faces, these are short monthly meetings via Zoom web calls, their names are hidden. Instead, attendees use anonymous labels such as “IACUC1” or “IACUC2”, and even these placeholder names can change from one meeting to the next.
In our groundbreaking lawsuit, we ask the court to order the disclosure of the names of these IACUC members and reverse any action taken by the committee that violates OPMA. If PETA succeeds, actions taken by the IACUC – including approval of experiments – in violation of the law may be invalidated and any such experiments may require re-examination.
UW has a little something to do
The IACUC is intended to be the last line of defense for animals suffering in laboratories and to be responsible for complying with animal welfare laws and regulations, but we don’t even know if its members have the right to hold their positions as long as UW suspiciously hides their identity.
In accordance with the provisions of the Federal Law on the Protection of Animals, the IACUC must have a defined composition of members, including an uneducated and a member of the community representing the interests of the community in relation to the treatment of animals. But the “unscientific” UW IACUC member is Ken Gordon, executive director of the Northwest Biomedical Research Association, which promotes animal experimentation.
IACUC membership isn’t the only thing UW is trying to hide.
In December 2020, PETA filed a lawsuit against the school for failing to provide documents detailing a decision to purchase a dilapidated, contaminated facility in the Arizona desert where a UW primate center bred macaques for use in experiments. The school was also unable to hand over documents detailing the financial crisis and the crisis to the primate center leadership.
IACUC UW members have let the animals down on multiple occasions
IACUC UW has an infamous reputation. In 2015, inspectors discovered that it was acting like a stamp committee – recklessly approving even proposals that were not filled out properly. The documents showed that several procedures were approved by the IACUC without a detailed description of what would be done with the animals. This led to the suffering of three monkeys, who were used in surgical operations, later suffered from “serious health problems” after the experiments, and were killed.
After PETA released the first ever video footage at the Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) of isolated monkeys walking in cramped, sterile cages, we reviewed public records that further exposed the brutality in the school’s labs.
Between November 2017 and March 2021, 77 incidents were documented in which animals in UW were seriously injured or died – almost twice a month. As we said, shameful. Oh, and did we mention that the IACUC chair is a liar?
Help PETA hold UW accountable – a call to end archaic monkey experiments!
UW’s experiments are largely funded by taxpayer dollars, so at least the school owes the public full transparency. But this is not enough to keep animals from suffering in his laboratories. Join PETA in calling the UW President to disable WaNPRC:
Tell UW to turn off WaNPRC
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