UI should welcome animal testing scrutiny

State Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, is no fan of animal testing being used for scientific research at the University of Iowa.

“Such conduct is abhorrent, barbaric, and entirely unacceptable within our state,” Collins wrote in a June 10 letter to the Board of Regents and UI President Barbara Wilson. “Were these actions not carried out within the confines of a laboratory, they would undoubtedly constitute criminal animal abuse.”

Collins is demanding that the UI publicly publish its institutional ethical animal use standards, with shortcomings and possible improvements. He wants UI to publish and audit all current and pending research “to determine which individual studies and projects can be transitioned to non-animal research methods,”

He also argues the hiring of a new vice president for research should be seen as a chance to curtail unnecessary animal testing in favor of alternative methods.

Collins is not alone.

“Animal experiments are falsely portrayed as a necessary evil to guarantee human or environmental health and safety,” wrote Preston Moore, Iowa state director for the Humane Society. “It’s increasingly clear that a continuing reliance on animal tests may hinder — rather than help — efforts to ensure that products designed to combat human diseases and conditions are effective.”

We agree that, as a public institution, UI should have no problem disclosing its research methods to public scrutiny. We know the university often finds itself being used as a political punching bag at the Statehouse. But this strikes us as a legitimate exercise of legislative oversight.

At issue are experiments on dogs aimed at learning more about leishmaniasis, a disease that kills tens of thousands of people around the globe annually. Dogs can carry the disease and pass it to humans through bites from sand flies.

According to UI, the dogs involved were already infected with leishmaniasis and were enrolled in research by caregivers.

“At the University of Iowa, we take the ethical treatment of animals very seriously,” UI Vice President for External Relations Peter Matthes said in a letter to Collins. “All of the UI’s policies and guidelines are published, and an anonymous tip line is available for those that have concerns.”

The fact that the university takes ethical treatment very seriously is good news. So there should be no trepidation in releasing more information about animal research. And, hopefully, that scrutiny will lead UI to find alternative research methods not involving animals.

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