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Saturday, October 16, 2010

New USDA Investigation at UW-Madison

After the Terasawa incident was exposed by the Alliance for Animals, coming on the heals of the cows being left to starve to death, university spokesman and (now) Research Animal Resource Center director Eric Sandgren claimed that the university had learned it's lesson about public disclosure; from here on out, he said, whenever problems arose, rather than allowing anti-cruelty activists to be the ones letting the public know what was happening, the university itself would be the first to announce any problems. That wasn't true during the Michele Basso affair, and it may not be true once again.

Multiple inside sources are saying that the university is again being investigated by the USDA.

Reportedly, APHIS Investigative & Enforcement Services arrived on campus on October 6, and announced that an investigation will evaluate the university's Animal Care and Use Program over the past three years.

This highly unusual investigation comes on the heals of the unprecedented joint investigation by the NIH and the USDA that reported nearly a hundred violations of the federal regulations governing the care and use of animals on campus.

This new investigation will apparently be launched on, Monday, October 18, and will continue through the end of November, at least.

As usual, everyone has been told to keep quiet about this.

Apparently, the USDA investigative team is comprised of nine people from across the country and is being led by Eastern Region Field Investigator Harry G. Dawson.

Apparently, the national pro-vivisection industry front group, the National Association for Biomedical Research (NABR) has been contacted by worried scientists and is said to be alarmed at the possible national impact of likely findings.

The most recent closed session of the All-Campus Animal Care and Use Committee meeting was reportedly "very loud." When the meeting broke up, members left quite upset and undoubtedly very worried.

Stay tuned.

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