Sunday, May 20, 2007

Good Science or Torture?
Experiments at UNM Laboratory Draw Fire

By Jim Ludwick
Copyright © 2007 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writer

    Mice were forced to swim until nearly drowning. Others were hung by their tails with adhesive tape.
    Pregnant mice were terrified by being put into dirty cages that had been used by rats. Researchers noted the miscarriages that resulted from the stress, and baby mice that survived were used in electrical shock experiments.
    The research, carried out on lab animals at the University of New Mexico, helped a high school student study hopelessness and depression for a science fair project.
    University officials and the student say there was nothing wrong with the experiments; the former lab veterinarian called them "torture" and an animal protection group said they were a perversion of science.
    The research helped a then-high school student enter a science fair— where the project was disqualified when national science-fair officials said it violated standards on the ethical use of animals.
    It also led to the resignation of the lab's research veterinarian, who didn't know about the experiments until after the fact.
    "This was torture," said Daniel Theele, who says the experiments weren't properly authorized and had no reasonable purpose.
    Theele was the veterinarian in charge of the welfare of lab animals.
    He said he ultimately learned the details of the experiments because of an angry complaint from science-fair officials who disqualified the project.
    "I have defended animal research, stating that we do not abuse animals. Then, this slapped me in the face," Theele said in an interview.
    He complained about the project and is now suing UNM over the treatment he says he received afterward.
    An internal investigation at UNM concluded that the experiments violated federal guidelines and had not been properly approved.
    A report on the investigation also expressed great concern about exposing a high school student to experiments inflicting pain on animals.
    However, UNM continues to defend what happened.
    "No illegal, abusive or inappropriate conduct or research occurred," an attorney for the UNM Board of Regents said three weeks ago in a reply to Theele's lawsuit.
    Andrea Allan, a professor who supervised the project, said she's been told by UNM that she can't be interviewed by reporters. She's named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
    "I'd love to explain all of this. I can't. As an employee of the university, I have to obey what I'm advised to do," she said.
    The high school student, Sarah Founds, has gone on to the University of Idaho, where she is studying nutrition. She says the project at UNM was worthwhile and did no harm.
    "I thought it was awesome. I had a lot of fun working on it," Founds told the Journal in a telephone interview.
    Founds said the project "wasn't overly painful."
    "I'd encourage other students to do that kind of research," she said.
   
'Deathly afraid'
    Experiments were conducted in 2003 and 2004, when Founds, from La Cueva High School, was hoping to win a place in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
    A science teacher told her how to arrange to do work at UNM. The university participates in a mentorship program for high school students interested in science fair projects.
    Founds said she worked on experiments in conjunction with a graduate student in 2003 and a medical student in 2004.
    The investigation report, written summaries of the experiments and interviews with Theele offer this description:
   
Mice were placed in a cylinder of water and forced to swim for 15 minutes. Their behavior was evaluated according to their twitching, kicking, swimming, climbing and thrashing. The experiment was billed as a study of depression.
   
In another study of depression, mice were hung by their tails. Adhesive tape was used to attach the tails to a horizontal bar for six minutes.
    It was painful, Theele said. "Imagine a puppy or a kitten hanging by its tail. This is no different."
   
Pregnant mice were periodically placed in dirty, empty rat cages to induce stress and fear. The mice were "deathly afraid," because they could tell they were in the home of a rat, Theele said. Rats eat mice.
    The intention was to upset the pregnant mice so intensely that their offspring could later be used in electrical shock experiments, to see if their reactions would differ from the reactions of mice whose mothers had not been under stress.
    In some cases, mice were aborted because of the stress in the rat cages, Theele said. In other cases, he said, mothers killed their babies. A researcher would record whether the mother killed the babies or allowed them to live, he said.
   
Two-month-old mice were placed in a chamber. At regular intervals, there was a 50 percent chance of an electrical shock. A mouse would get 120 shocks during about an hour.
    At a later time, the mice were placed in a chamber that was divided by a wall with a door on it. Electrical shocks began; if the mouse ran through the door, the shock would turn off, but otherwise the shocking would continue for 24 seconds. Shocks were administered 28 times.
    The electrical-shock experiments were billed as a study of depression and learned helplessness.
   
Mild shocks
    Founds said the project was "perfectly acceptable."
    In the swimming test, none of the mice drowned, she said. In the tail-suspension test, "none of them made any signs that it hurt."
    The electrical shocks were mild, she said. "I put my hand in there and could barely feel it."
    And she said she didn't know about mothers killing their young— but if it was observed by others involved in the experiments, there's no way to guess why it happened, she said.
    "Animals sometimes kill their own," she said.
    The project was disqualified by an international science fair review team because it violated rules for ethical and humane treatment of animals, according to the UNM investigation report from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, a research oversight group that is required by the federal government. The science-fair project had won in preliminary competition but didn't make it past a higher-level review.
    Theele was contacted with a demand for an explanation of UNM's involvement. He said he was stunned when he learned the details of the experiments.
    He was also surprised when he found his name had been signed to one of the science fair forms in 2004. The UNM investigation later concluded the signature was a forgery.
    Theele said the experiments "were of the most extreme pain and distress category" and were inappropriate for high school students or even medical students to conduct.
    "A high school student is in no way qualified to do these kinds of things. This is a travesty. ... I can provide no justification for a high school student being exposed to those kinds of experiments on animals," he said.
    When Theele pushed for action after learning of the experiments, UNM was defensive, he said.
    He said he faced personal criticism and was accused of vindictiveness. As UNM tried to deal with the matter quietly, Theele's office was searched by authorities, and his papers and computer were taken, he said.
    "They took everything out of my files. They alleged it was for my protection. ... I was told I was not to talk to anyone about this," he said.
    He left UNM in October 2005.
    His lawsuit, filed two months ago in federal court, alleges he was mistreated.
    UNM says his complaint is unfounded. It says UNM "did not take any adverse action" against Theele, and that he "voluntarily resigned his position at the university."
   
'A perversion'
    The experiments themselves are being sharply criticized.
    Randall Lockwood, senior vice president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said the experiments were "a perversion of how real science is done."
    "To me, it suggests inadequacy of faculty guidance. This has been against the rules for science fairs for a quarter-century," he said.
    "These are kinds of experiments that were done more than 50 years ago in the Dark Ages of psychological research."

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UNM's Attorneys Hid Lab Results

UNM Lost in Maze of Animal-Lab Excuses

Breaking Federal Rules 'Not Uncommon' in Animal Tests, Scientist Says

 

Posted with permission of the Albuquerque Publishing Company.