Nonprofit wants Ohio State to return $1.76M in research funds over alleged animal abuse
A nonprofit is calling for Ohio State University to refund $1.76 million in research grant money to the National Institutes of Health over alleged reports of animal abuse involving mice during research.
Stop Animal Expoitation Now (SAEN) sent a letter to Ohio State President Kristina M. Johnson on Tuesday that also called on the university to fire the research project's principal investigator, and the retraction of the scientific journal article associated with that project published on the National Library of Medicine's website.
Milford, Ohio-based SAEN says the principal investigator, who was not named in Ohio State's report, failed to euthanize animals who were suffering from ulcerated tumors, failed to provide pain relief and used expired drugs on animals as part of the project.
The research in question is related to cancer immunotherapy, and was published in October 2021.
“Ohio State University allowed this Principal Investigator to continue to violate federal regulations for multiple years, not only causing severe suffering to the animals used in the project, but totally invalidating the experiment,” SAEN co-founder Michael A. Budkie said in a news release.
“Therefore, everything associated with these multiple incidents of federal violations must be removed/ returned — grant funding, the publication, and the Principal Investigator.”
Ohio State spokesman Ben Johnson said Thursday SAEN discovered this information through an internal university auditing processing, and the university took action once the violations were made known.
"Through its regular monitoring process, the university documents and responds immediately when it learns of the rare cases where animal care does not meet our standards," Johnson said. "This letter cites a report from the university itself, making clear that Ohio State has a robust compliance program and takes appropriate action when research does not meet our standards."
Johnson did not identify what action the university took. He said the university "takes seriously its responsibility in caring for lab animals under its control."
All active research involving animals undergo "rigorous" peer review every year by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, he said, and the university inspects all animal research facilities twice a year, he said.
Ohio State will continue to monitor and evaluate its policies and procedures to "ensure high quality animal care and compliance with federal regulations and guidelines," Johnson said.
@megankhenry
Dispatch reporter Sheridan Hendrix contributed to this article.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Nonprofit wants Ohio State to return $1.76M over alleged animal abuse
