Animal Welfare Complaint Potentially Costly for University of Maryland

An animal rights group has filed a complaint with federal authorities alleging University of Maryland researchers neglected animals, resulting in their deaths.

Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!, a nonprofit watchdog animal rights group, filed an official complaint this week against the University of Maryland at College Park with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The group says in a news release that six bats died of dehydration after a caretaker forgot to give them water.

If the USDA reopens the issue, the university could face a maximum penalty of $10,000 for each of the six dead bats, according to a press release from the animal rights group.

After the animal deaths, the university retrained laboratory staff and implemented a daily checklist to track completion of all animal husbandry tasks. The animal rights group’s complaint argues that this response is far too lax, and urges a review from the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, the organization to which lab researchers are required to report animal deaths.

The Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare said in a statement to the University of Maryland’s student newspaper, The Diamondback, that the issue had already been reviewed and resolved. “These institutions are in good standing with [us] and in keeping with the requirement for self-reporting, will report to [us] any noncompliance with the relevant policies and regulations involving research animals, should they arise,” the statement said.

Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Tanya Espinosa told the student newspaper that “the reason we look into things further is so that we can get the complete information. There’s no investigation right now, and we may or may not decide to open an investigation — it depends on what we find out.”

The animal rights group says its complaint omits two other University of Maryland cases where chickens used in a study were decapitated, an unapproved method of euthanasia, and chicks were euthanized after hatching from unintentionally fertilized eggs.

Orr’s news release to Patch said neither incident can result in a fine since the birds are not protected by federal regulation.

“What this shows is a clear pattern of negligence,” Orr told Patch, and further questions the research department’s credibility by saying, “As an animal caretaker your main job is to feed and water the animals under your care. If you cannot be trusted with this simple task how can we trust any supposed scientific data from the university.”

»Read the full Diamondback story here.

Photo Credit: University of Maryland, College Park