Experiments that force mice to inhale smoke are the primary research conducted at LSU’s Inhalation Research Facility, which was vandalized Wednesday morning.
In an e-mail to The Reveille, the Animal Liberation Front, a radical animal rights advocacy organization, claimed responsibility for the vandalization. On its Web site, the AFL encourages members to engage in “direct action,” or “illegal action performed to bring about animal liberation.”
LSUPD and the FBI still are investigating the break-in, which resulted in the destruction of several hundred thousand dollars of research equipment.
“We are still in the evidentiary process and probably will be for another week,” said LSUPD Capt. Ricky Adams.
U.S. Attorney David Dugas said the FBI is taking the lead in the investigation because the break-in could be a violation of federal law. The vandalism may constitute “animal enterprise terrorism” specified as illegal in 18 US Statute Code 43.
“There has been destruction to an animal testing and experimentation facility,” he said. “At this point, we are investigating whether that destruction constitutes violation of the federal statute.”
Dugas also said property damages to animal testing facilities is a growing national trend, one that requires the FBI to lead a nationwide campaign against the challenges posed by groups such as the ALF.
The ALF claimed the break-in was justified because of the subjection of “animals to daily doses of cigarette smoke and industrial pollutants causing pain, suffering, and death.” The e-mail also claimed the lab is engaging in vivisection under the direction of Arthur Penn, director of the Inhalation Research Facility.
Vivisectioning is the cutting open of live animals, but according to Crystal Spiegal, American Anti-Vivisection Society outreach director, the term has evolved into an umbrella definition for “any harmful use of animals.” Although AAVS does not support any form of vivisection, Spiegal said the organization condemns the actions of groups such as ALF.
David Baker, director of Laboratory Animal Medicine at the School of Veterinary Medicine, said he cannot recall any recent vivisectioning or surgical procedures at the lab.
“But if there were surgical procedures, the animals would be under anesthesia and humanely euthanized,” he said.
Baker also said the experiments performed in the lab are humane.
“The average person watching an experiment would see only a mouse in a cage acting normally,” he said. “There are no seizures, blood or vomit.”
Baker said Penn researches the immune response to cigarette smoke and other forms of inhaled pollutants and their effects on an asthmatic.
“It’s really very important research,” he said. “Any asthmatic, any person who has ever inhaled second-hand smoke, will benefit from this study.”
Baker is also the attending veterinarian for the University’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. The IACUC is one of many regulatory bodies that must approve the lab’s animal testing.
The lab also voluntarily submits itself to the scrutiny of the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care.
Jim Miller, AAALAC executive director, said the association visits LSU every three years to evaluate the lab’s animal testing practices.
“And even if everything the ALF alleged is true, LSU would still be doing nothing illegal,” he said.
The AAALAC assessment includes regulations beyond the two federal acts the lab is required to follow – the Animal Welfare Act and Public Safety Act.
According to the AAALAC Web site, The Animal Welfare Act “regulates the care and use of animals in many areas, including animal research.” The act, however, does not include regulation of mice.
But the Public Safety Act does. Its official policy on humane care and use of laboratory animals defines animals as “any live, vertebrate animal used or intended for use in research, research training, experimentation or biological testing or for related purposes,” including mice.