City of Hope’s Treatment of Animals Being Investigated

The National Institutes of Health, responding to evidence found by an animal rights group during a break-in at the City of Hope, has launched investigations of possible animal mistreatment there and has frozen several million dollars a year in federal funding.

A preliminary probe requested by the National Institutes of Health turned up “at least 10 major deficiencies and 13 minor deficiencies” in the way animals are cared for at the facility in Duarte, the health agency’s deputy director, Charles MacKay, said Tuesday.

In addition, MacKay said, the initial investigation “found no adequate response” to the original allegations of mistreatment--allegations that a Washington-based organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, had made based on evidence uncovered during the raid last December by the secret Animal Liberation Front.

Specific Charges

Those allegations include charges that in general, animals were kept in “filthy, inhumane, immoral conditions,” that “morbidly ill” animals were left unattended for as long as 20 hours, that animals were found dying of starvation and that more than 50 dogs “died of negligence and poorly designed procedures.”

MacKay said that because of the findings from the initial investigation--performed at the request of the National Institutes of Health by a committee made up of three City of Hope National Medical Center staffers and three people selected by the center but not affiliated with it--the health agency ordered a second investigation of its own, which has yet to be completed.

In addition, MacKay said, the health agency froze “several million dollars” used for animal research out of the approximately $5 million that the City of Hope receives annually in U.S. Public Health Service funds.

Dr. Charles Mittman, executive medical director of the City of Hope, stressed Tuesday that the animal research funding by the National Institutes of Health “has just been suspended, not canceled. . . .”

“There should be very little immediate effect,” he said. “For the time being, the expenses are being covered from our own funding. It would have to go on for an extended period--more than three or four months--to have a major impact. . . .

“Within several weeks, we expect them to finish their report and we will sit down with them to negotiate an agreement,” Mittman said. “There will be a list of steps outlined to bring us back into compliance. . . . I’m confident that within a month, we’ll have the NIH funding back.”

Ann Thomas, a public information officer with the National Institutes of Health, said the initial probe found that there were three areas of “serious non-compliance with Public Health Service Policy--veterinary care, physical environment for the animals and administrative oversight.”

Available National Institutes of Health officials had no details of these findings Tuesday, but Mittman said he understood that deficiencies listed under veterinary care involved too little time being spent by consulting veterinarians on supervision of the animals at the research facility.

Deficiencies Described

He said that deficiencies listed under physical care mentioned such things as corridors being too small or difficult to clean, while deficiencies listed under administrative oversight involved inadequate record-keeping on laboratory animals.

“What they consider a major deficiency is something like the fact that you can’t hose down a room,” Mittman said. “Our care of animals--although it can be improved--has been, and is, generally appropriate.”

As for the lack of an “adequate response” to specific charges made by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Mittman said that the contingent of the review team not affiliated with the City of Hope was “opposed to specifically responding to the allegations because they were made on the basis of illegally gained materials.”

Ingrid Newkirk, director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said members of the Animal Liberation Front--a clandestine organization that has “liberated” animals at more than a dozen research facilities throughout the United during the last three years--chose the City of Hope facility last December because of the belief that studies done on animals there are unnecessary, immoral and inhumane.

After scaling a fence that surrounds the animal research laboratory, an Animal Liberation Front team stole 36 dogs, 12 cats, 12 rabbits, 28 mice and 18 rats, leaving spray-painted slogans on the walls and floors before fleeing into the night. Newkirk said the stolen animals were later placed in “foster homes.”

Cancer Studies

Dr. Joseph Holden, associate director for research at the facility, said the animals taken were being used for the study of cancer and other diseases. Other doctors said such studies are essential for the furtherance of human knowledge, describing the Animal Liberation Front raids as “frontier vigilantism.”

The National Institutes of Health action against the City of Hope marked the second time in recent weeks that an investigation sanctioned by the health agency has found that a major research facility targeted by Animal Liberation Front raiders had failed to comply with guidelines governing the treatment of laboratory animals.

On July 18, Margaret R. Heckler, U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services, ordered the suspension of a University of Pennsylvania research project that inflicted head injuries on laboratory baboons. She said she ordered the baboon project stopped because of “serious concerns” about the care of the animals.

The university laboratory was burglarized and vandalized by the Animal Liberation Front in May, 1984.