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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1988)
L0tt0|* Continued from Page 4 one-sided material, the judge disallowed the defense, Mr. Troen pleaded guilty, and the University of Oregon's re sponse to the allegations was never heard. Without attempting to re spond to every claim made by F’KTA, I would like to make the following points about research using animals at the University of Oregon. During the past five years, funding for research in areas utilizing animals has more than doubled at the University; dur ing this same period the use of animals other than fish, mice and rats has been reduced by about 60 percent. The University’s animal fa cilities are inspected at least monthly by the U.S. Depart ment of Agriculture, but have not been cited for even a minor problem in the past year. We received a particularly detailed inspection on May 24; no prob lems wore found. All current use of cats and monkeys in research have been reviewed by the full Institution al Animal Care and Use Com mittee (1ACUC) prior to the submission of proposals. These reviews typically result in rec ommendations for improving the animal care and use. which are always followed. Dr. Gordon-Lickey’s current NIH grant ends on June 30, 1988. Her renewal proposal re ceived a very high priority score by the NIH peer review panel, and has been accepted for funding effective July 1, 1988. Her research is not in the area of pain, but of the visual system, supported by the Eye Institute. Many of the incidents quoted by PETA happened many years ago, and in no way reflect cur rent practice at the University. For example, the so-called "joke photo” of Greg Stickrod on page 5 was taken in 1974. I in no way condone such activi ties, and can assure you that they have not occurred at the University in the past four years, and probably no in the past ten years. The University has under construction a complete new animal care facility. With this facility we expect to be able to obtain AAAI.AC accreditation, the highest level of accredit ation available, and one which substantially exceeds the re quirements of the NIH. We have discussed the situa tion hem at length with repre sentatives of Director Wyngarden's office of the NIH, as well as of the Office for Pro tection from Research Risks. They have concluded that there are no substantive reasons to Investigation Continued from Page 1 added. Moseley said OPRR offi cials have yet to contact him. He also charged that PETA has singled out the University’s animal research program be cause of negative publicity gen erated by the trial of Roger Troen, the sole suspect convict ed in the Oct. 26, 1986 Animal Liberation Front raid on the school's animal care facilities. “They're (PETA) trying to make an example of us. They’re not out picking on the big boys because those institutions are more protected — they have more people involved with fending off the attacks of PETA," Moseley said. In underscoring Moseley’s remarks, Newkirk said, "I’d really like to see the University of Oregon animal labs closed down as an example of the worst kind of use of animals, from a scientific perspective, a humane perspective and from a funding perspective.” conduct further investigations of animal care and use here, but have stated that they might be forced to conduct a formal investigation for political rea sons. Obviously, we would like to avoid such an investigation due to the negative public rela tions aspect, but we have no concerns that significant nega tive findings would occur. The University of Oregon has never restricted the research that a faculty member performs with the support of peer-re viewed unclassified basic re search funding from an agency of the federal government. 1 doubt that any major university has ever restricted such re search. To do so would be a blatant violation of the very fundamentals of academic free dom. In sensitive areas such as research using animals we try to be especially careful that all regulations are followed, and I am confident that we have suc ceeded in the cases under con sideration here. I regret that you (and we) must respond to these attacks. The issue should really be de bated at the national level — the use of animals at the Uni versity of Oregon is very small compared even with most other major universities. Our biologi cal research is much more di rected towards cells and biomolecules. Unfortunately, our success in bringing one of the Animal Liberation Front supporters to trial has placed us at the focus of a national concern. We appreciate your support in helping us to ex plain the fact that animal care and use at the University of Or egon meets very high standards today, and that we are con stantly working towards im proving it. Sincerely, John Moseley, Vice President for Research 2fori I Dinners | 2 #2’s for$5.95 with purchase of beverages . _Expires 10-31-88 ;f EL COMEDOR MEXICAN RESTAURANT 301 Oakway Mall Time Warp Costume Rentals Unique Head to Toe Prize Winning Personal Fittings Weekend Special Huge Selection Appointments/ Drop-In When Being Someone Else Matters 1022 Willamette St. • 344-5556 FREE LARGE GOURMET COFFEE w/purchase of main entree Limit one coupon per customer per visit Offer expires 10/31/88 • Not good w/any other offer. OPEN 10:30-2 p.m. M-F
