FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday / February 12, 2003

Contact: Michael Budkie, SAEN 513/575-5517

Research Labs Under Reported Primate Use, Broke Law, Says National Watchdog Group

CINCINNATI - Research laboratories at Harvard, University of Washington and other major U.S. facilities contributed to a false and misleading report to Congress by the Secretary of Agriculture by under reporting thousands of primates used in experiments, charged a national research watchdog organization this week.

Cincinnati-based Stop Animal Exploitation NOW (SAEN) claims the Animal Welfare Enforcement Report (AWER) filed with Congress in late 2002 is "fraught with errors," and could understate the number of primates used in research nationally by as much as 35 percent.

SAEN said that, from 1998 - 2000, Harvard under reported 2,464 primates, and in the last reporting year alone, the University of Washington under reported 2,072 primates, Oregon Health Sciences University 2,804 primates and the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research under reported 689 primates. Among other labs in question are Duke, Wake Forest, the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), the University of Southwestern Louisiana at New Iberia, LSU.

The AWER is compiled annually by the United States Department of Agriculture/Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA/APHIS) to report on agency activities regarding enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act. One main focus of the report is the compilation of statistics regarding animal experimentation.

"The reporting process needs to be overhauled, with stiff penalties added for late filings and errant reports by facilities," said Michael Budkie, AHT, executive director of SAEN.

For the full report see http://www.all-creatures.org/saen/articles-rep-anexp-elc.html
or for PDF see http://www.all-creatures.org/saen/articles-rep-anexp-elc-pdf.html.