Dear Editor,

Thank you for your article on the cows at K-State who have holes cut into their sides.

K-State's Evan Titgemeyer watches the university's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, which reviews proposed experiments and keeps the cows' pain and suffering in check. However, numerous federal reports indicate that IACUCs are failing at their responsibilities to animals and act instead as rubber-stamping bodies.

A scathing 2005 audit report published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of the Inspector General reports that as a result of rampant IACUC failures at facilities across the country, sick animals go without veterinary care, animals used in invasive surgeries do not receive sufficient pain relief and extremely sick animals are denied humane euthanasia. This is for the animals who are covered by the federal Animal Welfare Act.

The situation for animals who are not covered by the Act, including agricultural animals used in agricultural research, is far worse because there are no federal inspectors to ensure that minimal welfare standards are enforced.

To learn more, please visit stopanimaltests.com. For free stickers and information on what you can do to help, visit peta2.com.


Alka Chandna
Laboratory Oversight Specialist
Laboratory Investigations Department
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Norfolk, Va.