Posted on 04/18/2002 7:27:38 PM PDT by mykdsmom
CHAPEL HILL - For months, a spy with a hidden camera roamed among hundreds of cages holding lab mice and rats at UNC-Chapel Hill, documenting everything she saw.
Today, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals will release video footage of rats being beheaded and live mice mixed in with dead rodents to protest what it calls inhumane handling of lab creatures in Chapel Hill.
The animal-rights group wants improvements at UNC-CH. But its primary goal, leaders say, is to defeat a move by U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms to prevent the federal government from requiring greater protection for the millions of mice, rats and birds used in research labs.
"Somehow people see images of rodents used in research, and it doesn't bother them. We really want people to know that these rats and mice have feelings like any other animal," said Kate Turlington, the PETA investigator who worked undercover at UNC-CH from October to Wednesday, her last day on the job.
UNC-CH officials had no idea PETA had infiltrated their campus, which is accredited by a national agency that sets standards for the care of lab animals. On Wednesday, they said they have strong guidelines in place. But if evidence of poor treatment emerges, they said, the problems will be fixed.
"We are committed to providing the highest quality of care to animals," Vice Chancellor Tony Waldrop said. "We will look into any aspect of any allegation."
Turlington, who is 24 and a 2000 N.C. State University graduate, said she offered to work undercover somewhere in Research Triangle Park for PETA last year, after she finished an internship with an animal-rights group on the West Coast.
PETA has a long tradition of sneaking its people -- and cameras -- into places where it's not wanted, including a Camden County hog farm in Eastern North Carolina where evidence the group turned up resulted in criminal convictions in 2000 of two men who beat injured hogs.
Turlington, a onetime English major from Greensboro, inquired about several jobs in the Triangle, including one at a lab at the Environmental Protection Agency. But in October, she landed a $20,000-a-year post as a technician in the animal quarters at Thurston Bowles, a research building near UNC Hospitals.
She expected the job to be a training exercise for undercover work and at first did not take a camera to work. But in time, she became concerned about what she was seeing. So she started wearing the camera, fitted with sound, along with the scrubs, gloves and disposable caps required on the job. PETA declined to say how she hid the minicam.
"She found absolutely atrocious conditions. We said this is something that we can't ignore," said Mary Beth Sweetland, PETA's director of research and investigations, who is based in Norfolk, Va.
The videotape will be released to local press and to members of Congress considering Helms' measure against expanded protections. Local research universities have opposed the proposal.
In one segment, a laboratory worker from an alcohol research lab explains to Turlington that a procedure says baby rats should be placed on ice for four minutes before they are beheaded. But the lab worker says he prefers just to spray alcohol. That is faster, he says, and doesn't risk affecting the animals' brain.
"We need to get better results, so I keep brain fresh," the lab worker says. As he speaks and cuts out the brain, the rat's beheaded body wriggles on a table in front of him.
On a different day, Turlington finds eight live mice left in the dead animal cooler eating the body of a decapitated rat. Whoever disposed of them didn't make sure they were dead, she said.
In another case, a rat hooked up to wires designed to induce a seizure violently thrashes against the inside of a plastic bucket.
Lab workers are seen decapitating grown rats with tiny guillotines. Sick animals that need medical care or euthanasia languish in cages without treatment for days, she said.
At several points in the video, the only thing visible is Turlington's gloved hands, picking up mice and displaying them to her camera. Sometimes she strokes the animals gently or speaks to them kindly. Once she says, "Bless your heart."
PETA officials said they will file a complaint with the National Institutes of Health, which awards millions of dollars to UNC-CH each year for research.
Dr. Philip B. Carter of the College of Veterinary Medicine at N.C. State University is chairman of the board of the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care, the organization that accredits universities that prove they care for lab animals responsibly.
Carter said UNC-CH has a good reputation and solid policies when it comes to caring for lab animals. His organization, along with the federal government, requires that campuses such as UNC-CH keep the animals in clean and comfortable surroundings. They also require that animals receive pain relief if they are to be hurt in studies, unless the drugs or some other relief would alter research results.
Each accredited campus has a committee that is required to inspect all animal facilities twice a year. Still, Carter said, sometimes people slip.
"There can always be breaks in protocol," he said. "If a student or even a faculty member doesn't follow the protocol, there is not much you can do."
I bet they don't enjoy the benefits of any drugs or medical treatments that arise from the testing on these rodents either.
I actually think they would prefer that we do human testing first so we don't harm the precious mice.
MKM
MKM
This kind of stuff makes it to television, and UNC is in deep shinola.
People will tolerate animal research, but they will NOT tolerate cruelty.
I can't stand PETA, ordinarily, but if what they say they've filmed actually occurred, then UNC deserves all the hell it's about to get.
I can't stand PETA, ordinarily, but if what they say they've filmed actually occurred, then UNC deserves all the hell it's about to get.
But I can't think of a more humane way of removing a fresh rat's brain. Can you?
Death should be instantaneous. The twitching is purely muscles reacting to severed nerves.
Doesn't matter what I think; it matters what it LOOKS like. And it won't look good.
The cavalier attitude of the attendant won't help either.
"Today, People for the Ethical Treatment of Humans will release video footage of newborns getting scissors stuck into the base of their skulls during partial birth abortions."
Sounds like they might be just a tad nervous:
On Wednesday, they said they have strong guidelines in place. But if evidence of poor treatment emerges, they said, the problems will be fixed.
I'm all for animal research. But, I also worked in a funeral home, and I know how lax and comfortable people can become when operating in an environment and others can take some of that laxity as disrespect or, in this case, cruelty.
Won't happen!
Oh please, don't swallow the PETA cheese so willingly. Since this gal had a motive to find "problems", she did, how do we know that she didn't set up some of here "findings"? As far as the killing of the mouse and the wiggling body, have you ever used a mouse trap? If so, then shaddup.
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