AG Says Texas A&M Doesn't Need to Tell You What You're Paying Them to Do to Dogs & Cats

[TexasTowelie]

We're a little perplexed by a Texas Attorney General's opinion stating that Texas A&M doesn't have to release records related to testing done on cats and dogs.

The opinion was spurred by activists' requests for daily care logs and health logs, in a story originally reported by the San Antonio Express-News last week. The Beagle Freedom Project, which finds homes for former laboratory beagles, had requested the records, but university officials declined to release them with the aid of the opinion, which states: "A veterinarian may not violate the confidential relationship between the veterinarian and the veterinarian's client." The client in this case is the university.

The story noted that A&M "reported last year using 428 dogs and 15 cats for research. In 2009, Texas A&M said three-fourths of tests done on 82 dogs produced some 'pain or distress,' according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture."

The AG's opinion is especially perplexing because the university has released records in the past, notably in a 2009 report called "Dying to Learn," put out by a division of the American Anti-Vivisection Society called Animalearn. The report's authors queried university institutional animal care and use committees, which oversee animal testing, and were able to receive some pretty alarming information from Texas A&M, including the fact that the university engaged in a practice called "pound seizure," wherein research institutions obtain animals from municipal animal shelters:

Between January 2005 and July 2008, Texas A&M acquired 474 live dogs from local shelters, primarily Lehman Animal Shelter in Giddings, Texas. Records indicate that the dogs were euthanized at the university on the same day they were acquired from the shelter. Between January 2006 and March 2008, Texas A&M acquired 86 dead cats from Lehman Animal Shelter.

Read more: http://www.houstonpress.com/news/attorney-general-says-texas-aandm-doesnt-need-to-tell-you-what-youre-paying-them-to-do-to-dogs-and-cats-7623013

[SusanCalvin]

1. That ruling is so bogus. nt

[Ilsa]

2. This breaks my heart.

Veterinarians typically love animals, and have since they were children. I hope the vet school student population is aware of these practices and helping to minimize them.

I'm gonna go cry now, thinking about our rescued pets.