The University of Michigan is under fire again for its handling of animal research, this time for multiple violations, including the botched euthanasia of mice.
Stop Animal Exploitation Now! (SAEN) , a national watchdog group that investigates animal abuse and illegal activities at research facilities, is calling for an independent audit and the termination of the lab workers who were involved. According to the group, 11 mice were improperly euthanized, “leaving them to become conscious in a carcass disposal device.”
“At least one UM lab technician is so incompetent that they cannot even kill animals correctly,” SAEN Executive Director Michael A. Budkie said in a letter to UM President Santa Ono and members of the Board of Regents. “It is impossible to comprehend what these animals endured, waking up in a carcass disposal area, likely on top of dead animals, contained within what is likely either a freezer or a trash can. No living animal should be subjected to such horror and pain. Anyone whose incompetence inflicted such abuse on an animal should never be allowed to touch an animal again.”