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Statement of Suzannne Roy, In Defense of Animals, at the January 9, 2001 Press Conference Sponsored by Animal Protection New Mexico Regarding the Coulston Foundation

Thank you Harriette. I am so honored to share this podium with such extraordinary individuals. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Attorney General Madrid, Senator Garcia, Ali McGraw and Roger Fouts for speaking out in defense of the more the Coulston chimpanzees. I feel hopeful that, with such distinguished support, we will finally be able to do something concrete for these long-suffering individuals.

I would also like to thank Animal Protection New Mexico for inviting me today and for all its excellent work on this issue and other issues that affect animals in this state.

In Defense of Animals is an international animal rescue and advocacy organization based in California. We have been investigating the Coulston Foundation for more than six years. We have developed a network of confidential whistleblowers that have provided us with information on an ongoing basis about egregious negligence and cruelty taking place behind the foundation's walls. Based on this information, we have filed numerous complaints with regulatory agencies, resulting in an unprecedented federal action against the lab.

The Coulston Foundation's record of violating federal law is truly unprecedented. And the External Review Team Report that I am here to discuss today confirms that the violations continue. 

The report was prepared by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International, known as AAALAC. AAALAC evaluates animal research laboratories for their compliance with the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. In order to be eligible for research funding from the National Institutes of Health, all labs must comply with this policy.

In February 1998, at Coulston's request, AAALAC conducted a site visit and found fundamental violations of PHS policy in all major areas of the lab's operations. Four months later, AAALAC flatly rejected Coulston's application for accreditation.

In February 2000, AAALAC returned to the lab, again at Coulston's request, this time as the external review team mandated by the 1999 settlement agreement between Coulston and the USDA. Again AAALAC found widespread violations of PHS policy in the same areas noted two years prior. In April 2000, AAALAC issued the scathing report that was obtained through APNM's Freedom of Information lawsuit and is being released today.

The report harshly criticized two areas at Coulston that are the cornerstones of a legally compliant animal care program. These are the functioning of the its Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, or IACUC, which oversees all animal use at the facility, and its program of veterinary care.

By law, the IACUC is supposed to review proposals for animal experiments, known as protocols, to ensure that the use of animals is scientifically justified, that the fewest number of animals possible is sued, that no alternatives are available and that pain and distress are minimized. The IACUC is also supposed to oversee a facility's entire animal use program and inspect it semi-annually.

The Coulston IACUC has failed abysmally to fulfill any of these legally-mandated responsiblities.

AAALAC characterized Coulston's IACUC as lacking independence and noted that Coulston management routinely withheld critical information from the IACUC, and could easily overrule decisions its decisions.

AAALAC concluded that the Coulston IACUC's actions were "suggestive of a committee that is poorly trained and discouraged from thoroughly reviewing issues and coming to its own conclusions and recommendations."

Three years earlier, the USDA had found the same fundamental problems, and has continued to document IACUC violations to this day.

The importance of the IACUC cannot be overstated. The National Institutes of Health has called IACUC's the "cornerstone" of the its approach to ensuring that recipients of federal research funds comply with federal animal welfare law. Without a functioning IACUC, Coulston cannot certify compliance, and therefore cannot legally maintain its eligibility to receive federal funds.

If AAALAC's findings about Coulston's IACUC are bad, then its conclusions regarding veterinary care are even worse. Specifically, AAALAC suggested that inadequate care may have contributed to the death of 17 chimpanzees between 1998 and 2000. It directly blamed four of those deaths on lack of proper vet care. Two chimpanzees died from suffocation during CAT scans, when no one was monitoring the anesthetized apes to ensure that their airways remained unobstructed. Two others suffered from renal failure received no medical treatment at all.

Between 1998 and 2000, Coulston's veterinary staff experienced 100 percent turnover. The remaining staff were extremely inexperienced at the time of the report, and are even less so today. AAALAC noted just one vet with significant chimpanzee experience, but he dedicated just 5 percent of his time to clinical chimpanzee care. This vet was Coulston president David Renquist. He resigned shortly after the AAALAC report was released after a brief five-month tenure at the lab.

AAALAC reported that Coulston technicians, not veterinarians, appear primarily involved with medical care. AAALAC noted one case in which a technician -- not a veterinarian -- even set the broken arm of a chimpanzee.

AAALAC faulted Coulston policies regarding the veterinarians' authority to treat animals. AALAC criticized it as focusing on "preventing death" rather than alleviating suffering. Coulston veterinarians lack the authority to treat suffering animals. Decisions are made by study directors instead. This policy has had tragic results.

For example, in November 1999, Coulston veterinarians were belatedly performing a C-section on Donna, a 36-year old chimpanzee who was suffering from a massive infection after carrying a large dead fetus in her womb for up to two months. The veterinarians removed one liter of pus from her abdomen and observed the partially decomposed skull of the fetus protruding through the wall of her ruptured uterus. Although Donna was literally rotting from the inside out, the veterinarians could not get permission to euthanize her. They were forced to sew her up and allow her to awaken in that excruciatingly painful and terrible condition. She died the next day.

Beyond veterinary care, there are many other extremely disturbing findings contained in this report. Among them:

Chimpanzees and monkeys have been housed singly for no scientific or behavioral reasons, in contravention of federal guidelines.

Macaque monkeys have been living outside in rundown corncribs unprotected from the elements. A single source of water supplies these monkeys and the water line is subject to freezing. As a result, the water is turned off when the temperatures drop. Since average temperatures in Alamogordo are at or below freezing three months of the year, this has serious implications and violates the federal regulation requiring animals to have free access to water. In 1994, four monkeys died of dehydration at the lab. More than six years later, the danger remains.

No psychological enrichment program for the foundation's nearly 1000 primates exists, save for the giving of QUOTE novel food items, such as burritos END QUOTE. To explain away this deficiency, Coulston actually tried to claim cage washing as an enrichment activity.

Serious worker safety violations plague the lab, including the disturbing fact that many Coulston employees are apparently unaware of the infectious status of the chimpanzees with whom they are working. This means that workers cannot possibly protect themselves from the dangers of infection with dangerous viruses like hepatitis and HIV. Workers were also hand catching macaques, leaving them vulnerable to bites and other exposures from these monkeys who commonly carry the deadly Herpes B virus. AAALAC's safety concerns were echoed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration which fined the lab for a host of worker safety violations last year. 

The AAALAC reports from 1998 and 2000 are a stunning indictments of conditions at this facility that has enjoyed the largesse of the federal government to the tune of 30 million dollars or more over the past seven years.

Yet, in spite of this record, the National Institutes of Health continues to fund Coulston, not only with subcontracts for research, but also with "supplemental funds" awarded solely to help the lab avert bankruptcy. These supplemental awards now total nearly 2 million dollars.

The Health Research Extension Act of 1985 requires NIH to suspend or revoke funding to any entity that fails to correct violations of the PHS Policy. Remember, AAALAC evaluates laboratories specifically for their compliance with this policy.

Taken together, the AAALAC reports from 1998 and 2000 show definitively that Coulston has been out of compliance for at least two years. And, the situation at the lab is even worse today than it was in when the AAALAC released this report. Coulston's veterinary staff is more inexperienced than ever, its IACUC is still non-functioning, and its chimpanzees continue to die.

IDA and APNM believe beyond a shadow of doubt that the continued NIH funding of Coulston is blatantly illegal.

It is long past time for federal action. In Defense of Animals wholeheartedly supports the list of demands issued today. We believe that the NIH's continued support for this lab is truly a scandal of national proportions and one that has had truly tragic consequences. We hope that by shining the public spotlight on this story, the government deadly inaction will finally come to an end.

Thank you very much.

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