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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS
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MONTH: July-August 2007
Pound seizure shocks Sri Lanka
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka--Requisitioning
shelter animals for laboratory use, the mostly banned and discredited
practice called "pound seizure" in the U.S., is now reaching
Asian awareness through the story of Wussie, a gentle former street dog.
Told first by Sri Lankan newspapers, Wussie's
story went global via the Hong Kong-based Asian Animal Protection Network.
Scientific institutions and regulators in New Delhi, Mexico City, Cambridge,
U.K., and Washington, D.C. were soon investigating their unwitting involvement.
Wussie is sole survivor of a series of
surgeries on dogs directed by parasitologist R.P.V.J. Rajapakse. Rajapakse
claimed to be seeking an herbal treatment for diabetes--a potentially
lucrative field for scientific exploration, but far outside his usual
field.
Related Champa Fernando of the Sri Lankan
organization KACPAW in a May 30, 2007 complaint to the Sri Lanka Veterinary
Council, "On 22 and 23 May 2007, Professor Rajapakse, head of the
Department of Veterinary Pathobiology at the University of Peradeniya,
adopted three dogs from our shelter, saying that one would be for his
Gohagoda home and the other two for his wife's home in Kiribathgoda. The
three dogs were in perfect health. They had been spayed and vaccinated
against rabies, parvo virus, and distemper.
"On 28 May 2007, we discovered to
our horror that Rajapakse took them straight to the government veterinary
hospital at Getambe, where extensive invasive surgery was carried out
on all three dogs by Wasantha Kumara," the hospital chief.
Wussie "was opened up, probed for
a long time, and then stitched," Fernando wrote. "The second
dog apparently had her adrenal glands removed. She died the next morning.
The third dog," named Polly, "had her pancreas removed. We took
the two surviving dogs back to our shelter," Fernando said, "and
obtained treatment for them from the veterinary faculty of the University
of Peradeniya."
Polly died under treatment.
Rajapakse was the only University of Peradeniya
veterinary faculty member who was involved in the experimental surgeries,
Fernando stated.
"At the Peradeniya Police Station,
where we lodged a complaint, Rajapakse said the surgery was carried out
to do hysterectomies," Fernando alleged. "To the dean of the
veterinary faculty, he said that the surgery involved removal of the spleens
and admitted that he had lied to KACPAW when he took the dogs. However,
it has been established through scanning that both dogs who survived surgery
had their spleens intact. Rajapakse also said the dog who died did so
soon after surgery, whereas she actually died the next morning, obviously
after much suffering.
"Wasantha Kumara refused to divulge
the nature of the surgery done on the two surviving dogs when he was asked
by the dean of the veterinary faculty to provide the information, which
was crucial to treat the two dogs," Fernando added. "We were
compelled to request the Governor of the Central Province, Tikiri Kobbekaduwa,
to intervene."
Said Rajapakse in a June 7, 2007 written
statement, "I completely assure and prove that these three dogs were
used for experimentation in the welfare and betterment of animals and
veterinary medicine. I was doing a trial of therapy for diabetes mellitus
with medicines of plant origin and gene therapy. In the first dog the
adrenal gland was removed. In the second dog the pancreas was removed.
Nothing was removed from the third dog," who was "subjected
to exploratory surgery as a control," Rajapakse asserted.
"Before starting this experiment
we extensively searched for any legal or ethical parameters in animal
experimentation," Rajapakse insisted. "And we were unable to
find any guidelines or restrictions on animal experimentation in Sri Lanka.
On those grounds we initiated the experimentation, with the available
guidelines of animal experimentation in some other countries."
Rajapakse's entire explanation raised
questions. The American Diabetes Association warned in 2000 that while
diabetics often buy herbal supplements that they hope will help them,
some herbal supplements can cause harmful responses, and the effects of
most are completely untested.
Explained Bernadette Mariott, former director
of the Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institutes of Health,
to CNN medical correspondent Holly Firfer, "There are a number of
botanical supplements that are marketed in this country and throughout
the world as helpful for diabetics, but we have very little data on these
in terms of scientific clinical trials."
Rajapakse may have been hoping to fill
some of the gaps in knowledge. He claimed to have published scientific
papers on herbal therapy for diabetes. However, neither Fernando, ANIMAL
PEOPLE, nor animal advocate Michael O'Leary, an Irish resident of Sri
Lanka, were able to find any.
Immediately evident, however, was that
obtaining the dogs under false pretenses and beginning the experiments
without review by an Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee would
have violated laws in the U.S., Britain, most of Europe, and India, and
could exclude publication of the findings in reputable medical journals.
In addition, using random-source dogs at all in pharmacological research
is now widely discouraged because of the risk that unknown genetic factors
or diseases could influence the findings.
Pointed out O'Leary, "Rajapakse should
be familiar with U.K. procedures, as he claims to have spent some time
in 1985-1986 at the University of Cambridge Department of Clinical Veterinary
Medicine. The U.K. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act became law in 1986.
It would be very odd if an ambitious veterinary practitioner studying
in England at the very time that the Act came into force would not have
got wind of it.
"Rajapakse in his bio data states
that he is a member of the editorial board for BioMed Central Veterinary
Research, U.K.," O'Leary added. "The BMC editorial board provides
that 'Submission of a manuscript to BMC Veterinary Research implies thatSıany
experimental research on animals must follow internationally recognized
guidelinesSı Manuscripts may be rejected if the editorial office considers
that the research has not been carried out within an ethical framework,
e.g. if the severity of the experimental procedure is not justified by
the value of the knowledge gained.' It is ironic," O'Leary told ANIMAL
PEOPLE, "that Rajapakse did not himself adhere to those guidelines."
Exposés
Sagarica Rajakarunanayake, president of
the Sri Lankan charity Sathva Mithra [means Friends of Animals], exposed
the Wussie case in the June 8, 2007 edition of The Island newspaper. Marisa
de Silva of the Sunday Times followed up two days later.
"We are currently conducting an inquiry
into the matter," Sri Lanka Veterinary Council registrar K.N.T. Kandaragama
told de Silva. "Once a comprehensive probe has been conducted, the
Council will take the necessary course of action," Kandaragama added,
noting that he could not "give a definite time frame as to when the
investigation will be complete."
Rajapakse told de Silva that he hoped
to "take action against these people who are trying to defame me."
During the next few days Fernando and O'Leary received several e-mails purporting to be from prominent scientists and scientific organizations, warning them against defaming Rajapakse.
Checking with the alleged senders, O'Leary
discovered that many and perhaps all were forged.
"It's not my job to question the
origin or the parentage of the animal brought to me for surgery or otherwise,"
Wasantha Kumara told de Silva, disregarding that laws and scientific standards
in most of the developed world require researchers to identify the sources
of experimental subjects.
For example, the U.S. Laboratory Animal
Welfare Act of 1966 established that researchers have an obligation to
establish that they legally possess any animal they use. The act was amended
into the present Animal Welfare Act in 1971. Further amendments in 1990
extended the professional obligation to ensure that stolen animals are
not used.
Observed Save Our Friends Association
founder Eva Ruppel, better known in Sri Lanka as Padma, "We have
no proper laws in Sri Lanka banning or regulating the use of animals in
research. But having deceived KACPAW to give these dogs for adoption while
in fact they were taken straight to the government hospital to be cut
up is illegal even with the present legislation."
Said Wasantha Kumara, "There was
no tattoo or identification number on the animals to imply that they belonged
to KACPAW. Since the animals were brought to me by a researcher such as
Professor Rajapakse, who is held in high repute in veterinary circles,
I just did as I was instructed. This looks to be a case of professional
jealousy," Wasantha Kumara claimed, "as the government hospital
gets more business than the veterinary teaching hospital," but Fernando
pointed out that the teaching hospital has all the business it wants.
As well as heading the government hospital,
Wasantha Kumara is a director of Pets V Care, a firm often hired by animal
welfare projects. A Pets V Care spokesperson anonymously stipulated that
Wasantha Kumara is not on the Pets V Care working staff.
"Follow the Buddha"
Learning that Rajapakse was due to speak
on June 22, 2007 at the First North American Parasitology Congress, organised
by Sociedad Mexicana de Parasitología A.C. and the American Society
of Parasitologists, Indian legislator and People for Animals founder Maneka
Gandhi forwarded details of the Wussie case to conference co-chair Ana
Flisser Steinbruch.
"We are presently taking measures
regarding Professor Rajapakse," Flisser responded, but at the ANIMAL
PEOPLE press date Flisser had not yet responded to inquiries about what
those measures were.
Rajapakse on June 15, 2007 sent Mrs. Gandhi
his resumé with an appeal for help. Responded Mrs. Gandhi, "I
would suggest that you resign and go and follow the spirit of the Buddha,
whose foremost tenet was not to kill."
Resumé
Rajapakse's resumé stated that
he held a "Degree of Doctor of Philosophy" obtained from the
University of Cambridge/ University of Peradeniya 1992."
"We have no record of the above named
as having registered as a student at this university," Cambridge
senior records assistant Katherine Johnson told O'Leary.
Fernando eventually established that Rajapakse
"was involved in something called a sandwich program, in which he
did part of his research under a supervisor in a department or laboratory
at Cambridge."
Rajapakse's resumé and rationalizations also raised questions about
his past research. "One allegation," Rajapakse wrote, "is
that some time ago I exported 200 canine kidneys. In real terms we sent
86 canine samples (parts of brain, tongue, and heart) to the USDA for
screening for a serious and devastating zoonotic disease, toxoplasmosis."
According to a report of the findings
published in a 2007 edition of the journal Veterinary Parasitology, "Eighty-six
street dogs caught by the municipality were euthanized by intravenous
injection of sodium thiopentone...At necropsy, brain, heart, tongue and
blood samples were collected and sent" to USDA Agricultural Research
Service biological science laboratory technician Katherine Hopkins.
Hopkins had no comment when ANIMAL PEOPLE
informed her by e-mail that the USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection
Service on February 18, 1993 began enforcing the 1990 amendments to the
Animal Welfare Act to prohibit imports of dogs and dog parts from foreign
sources that fail to meet U.S. tracking standards.
The 1990 amendments have not been repealed.
USDA-APHIS claims to enforce even stricter biosecurity standards now than
in 1993, but Animal Welfare Institute president Cathy Liss opined that,
"USDA is [now] not concerned with records or sources for dogs and
cats obtained outside the U.S. For example," Liss said, "a Class
B dealer in Arizona has been obtaining dead cats from Mexico for sale
as biological specimens. Records showing their origin are not required
or checked."
Nonetheless, Liss pledged that AWI would
"follow up with Dr. Hopkins."
"Wussie is fine," Fernando updated
shortly before press time. "I still see Polly wagging her tail and
jumping up and down. I will fight this case to the bitter end," she
pledged. --Merritt Clifton