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PETA: 'Return Grant Money'
National Institute Of Health Receives Additional Complaints Against UConn
Jessica Silber
Issue date: 9/14/07 Section: News
From 1998 to 2006, Dr. David Waitzman of the University of Connecticut Health Center went from receiving a $1.7 million grant from the National Eye Institute, a division of the National Institute of Health (NIH), to shutting down his lab at the urging of the University of Connecticut.
Waitzman, whose research concentrated on how the brain stem controls eye movement, ran into trouble in 2004 when then-UConn student Justin Goodman, founder of the UConn Animal Rights Collective and research associate with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), learned of his research, which included allegedly unauthorized experimentation involving monkeys.
"We did some background reconnaissance and were able to construct a good illustration of what was going on," Goodman said.
What was going on in the laboratories was, in fact, in full violation of NIH standards. Monkeys would spend months being acclimatized, then, in various experiments, had parts of their skulls cut off and data collection chambers placed on their brains and small wire coils placed in their eyes. One subject in particular, a monkey named Cornelius, began displaying adverse affects to this treatment.
An official complaint from PETA, written by Goodman, to the National Eye Institute contains details of a treatment log kept by doctors at the laboratory. It reads in part that after experimentation, Cornelius "returned to cage. Seemed to have loss of stability. Shaking in chair. Seizure developed." One month later, the animal died of cardiac arrest in the experiment chair.
Following this unexpected death, further investigations into the laboratory occurred. According to the PETA statement, "Waitzman's nonhuman primate laboratory in the Farmington facility was inspected by the USDA five times during the period from November 2005 to January 2007, resulting in 21 citations for violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA)."
This included "failure to employ personnel who were appropriately qualified and trained and authorized by the IACUC to handle nonhuman primates" and "failure to handle nonhuman primates in a way that does not cause stress, trauma, and/or unnecessary discomfort."
Waitzman, whose research concentrated on how the brain stem controls eye movement, ran into trouble in 2004 when then-UConn student Justin Goodman, founder of the UConn Animal Rights Collective and research associate with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), learned of his research, which included allegedly unauthorized experimentation involving monkeys.
"We did some background reconnaissance and were able to construct a good illustration of what was going on," Goodman said.
What was going on in the laboratories was, in fact, in full violation of NIH standards. Monkeys would spend months being acclimatized, then, in various experiments, had parts of their skulls cut off and data collection chambers placed on their brains and small wire coils placed in their eyes. One subject in particular, a monkey named Cornelius, began displaying adverse affects to this treatment.
An official complaint from PETA, written by Goodman, to the National Eye Institute contains details of a treatment log kept by doctors at the laboratory. It reads in part that after experimentation, Cornelius "returned to cage. Seemed to have loss of stability. Shaking in chair. Seizure developed." One month later, the animal died of cardiac arrest in the experiment chair.
Following this unexpected death, further investigations into the laboratory occurred. According to the PETA statement, "Waitzman's nonhuman primate laboratory in the Farmington facility was inspected by the USDA five times during the period from November 2005 to January 2007, resulting in 21 citations for violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA)."
This included "failure to employ personnel who were appropriately qualified and trained and authorized by the IACUC to handle nonhuman primates" and "failure to handle nonhuman primates in a way that does not cause stress, trauma, and/or unnecessary discomfort."
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Neil Seigel
posted 9/14/07 @ 9:47 AM EST
Bravo Justin Goodman! We need more people in the world like you who are willing to take evil head on in this messed-up world. You brought Waitzman to justice, and if the NIH will do it's job by forcing him to return his grant money then the animals will have justice too. (Continued…)
Steve
posted 10/04/07 @ 10:54 AM EST
Yes Bravo Justin. Too bad you didnt step in when PETA killed the 31 dogs from the shelter in virginia and then dumped their carcasses in the the local dumpster. (Continued…)
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