ANIMAL PEOPLE is the
leading independent newspaper providing original investigative coverage
of animal protection worldwide. Founded in 1992, ANIMAL PEOPLE has
no alignment or affiliation with any other entity.
Charges against Univ. of Nevada
laboratory whistleblower dropped
RENO––University of Nevada at Reno president John Lilley on
April 29 informed animal nutrition professor Hussein S. Hussein by letter
that Lilley has accepted the recommendations of a hearing officer and
three-member university panel that misconduct charges filed against Hussein
should be dropped, university spokesperson Jane Tors announced on May
2.
“After a seven-hour evidentiary hearing on April 19, the panel and
former Carson City District Judge Michael E. Fondi found the charges groundless,”
reported Scott Sonner of Associated Press.
“Lilley said in the April 29 letter to Hussein that he was accepting
their recommendations even though he still believes Hussein acted inappropriately”
in seeking veterinary help during May and June 2004 for 10 boars that
he found inexplicably placed in the same barn as his own research animals,”
said Sonner.
Hussein testified that the boars “were copiously foaming at the mouth,
including one who broke out of a pen and chased two of his graduate students,
and he thought they might be rabid or have other diseases,” wrote
Frank X. Mullen Jr. of the Reno Gazette-Journal.
“Hussein told the disciplinary panel that administrators at UNR’s
College of Agriculture would not explain why the pigs were housed in his
research facility or who had responsibility for them,” Mullen continued.
“In August, Hussein complained to the USDA about unexplained deaths
and alleged abuse of UNR farm animals. He also has filed two federal lawsuits
against UNR, Lilley, agriculture dean David Thawley, researcher Esmail
Zanjani, and others, accusing them of retaliating against him for reporting
UNR to the USDA,” said Mullen.
Steve Damonte, DVM, and cellular and microbiology Ph.D. candidate Laurie
Bollinger testified in support of Hussein. Bollinger has also sued UNR
for allegedly retaliating against her for backing Hussein’s claims.
Bollinger and two other graduate students contend that some of their lab
work was sabotaged.
Lilley remained critical of Hussein. “The report indicates that you
did, in fact, engage in activities that involved another researcher’s
animals,” Lilley wrote to Hussein. “It is the responsibility
of all members of our institution to respect the sanctity of each and
every research project at the university. Henceforth, I trust that you
will accord the same respect to the research animals of others as you
expect them to respect your research materials and animals.”
Responded Hussein, “We spent huge amounts of taxpayer dollars and
huge amounts of my own money for a hearing that showed the charges were
groundless. Instead of giving a simple dismissal as the panel recommended,
Lilley is giving me a letter of warning––a censure.”
Lilley on April 1 appointed a panel chaired by Nevada State Board of Agriculture
president Benny Romero to investigate further allegations of UNR abuse
and neglect of farm animals used in research, brought to light by Mullen
of the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Other panel members include Nevada Cattlemen’s Association vice president
Boyd Spratling, Nevada Woolgrowers Association president Pete Paris, Nevada
Farm Bureau executive director Doug Busselman, and rancher and state senator
Dean Rhoads. Their findings are to be reviewed by University of California
at Davis vet Dale Brooks.
Mullen reported on March 30 that from 2002 until 2004, UNR sent about
200 female sheep who had been injected with human stem cells, and whose
lambs contained human DNA, to a research ranch east of Reno for use in
weed eradication.
More than 80% were killed by pumas or coyotes, were shot due to injury
by predators, or drowned in the Truckee River while being chased by wild
dogs, said former UNR staff interviewed by Mullen.
“UNR College of Agricul-ture officials denied that the ewes used
in the stem-cell experiments were sent to the ranch to die,” Mullen
wrote. “But the former ranch manager and others who worked with the
ewes said college officials told them that because the sheep had been
injected with human stem cells, they couldn’t be eaten, bred, or
sold, and therefore had no economic value.
“The former employees said UNR scientists told them the ewes had
human DNA in their bodies, but college officials said the employees were
told that ‘as an extra precaution’ to make sure the animals
remained under UNR control,” Mullen added.
UNR “had incinerated sheep used in the project for 12 years and didn’t
officially change the research animals’ status before sending them
to the weed mitigation experiment,” Mullen continued, but most of
the carcasses of the sheep who died at the ranch were allegedly left to
rot. About 40 were reportedly buried near the Truckee River.
“Researchers have reverted to incinerating the animals’ remains
for ‘bio-political’ reasons, they said,” wrote Mullen.
New
Iberia case
In
a partially parallel case, former New Iberia Research Center staffer Narriman
Fakier in February 2005 sued the University of Louisi-ana at Lafayette
for alleged wrongful dismissal, after complaining to the USDA about perceived
violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
A response to the Fakier lawsuit filed in late April by Louisiana Special
Assistant Attorney General Steven Dupuis argues that Fakier “resigned
voluntarily after sending an e-mail to her supervisor about the relocation
of chimpanzees and the threat it posed to employee safety,” summarized
Jeff Moore of The Daily Iberian.
“Fakier’s suit,” continued Moore, “said she had previously
protested the treatment of animals at the facility, including an alleged
incident where an employee deliberately burned the hands of several chimpanzees
with a lighter and threw a bucket of scalding water on another. The USDA
has launched an investigation into her claims.”
