MU charged so much for lab animal research records that it now has to go to trial
An animal rescue group asked the University of Missouri for records on 179 cats and dogs the school used in medical research. The price tag the university put on the documents: $82,000.
So the Los Angeles-based group, Beagle Freedom Project, sued the university, claiming the cost is “prohibitively high” and “violates the Missouri Sunshine Law.”
Now the lawsuit, filed in 2016, is finally scheduled to be heard in Boone County Circuit Court on Tuesday.
The case gained national attention with an explosion of condemnation against the university on social media, not so much for the issue of records but for the treatment of six beagles used in experiments.
The group sought the records on the care of various breeds of cats and dogs “as part of an awareness campaign that would put a face to these animals used in research by institutions,” said Eric Crinnian, a lawyer with the firm representing the group.
University officials said the cost was based on estimates for digging up and making copies of documents, photos and videos. Any money remaining would be refunded to the group.
“This has never had anything to do with us not wanting to give them the records,” said Christian Basi, university spokesman. “It is about how much time and productivity is involved in acquiring the records in the form that they want.”
Last year the court denied an attempt by the university to get the case tossed.
Then last month, after learning through court documents that the animal group wasn’t requesting as much information as it had originally asked for, MU proposed in a email that it could meet the terms at a significantly lower cost — $8,950.
“We have not heard back from them,” Basi said.
Crinnian said the group did not respond because the email came from the university’s custodian of record and not its attorneys. “We considered that an ex parte communication with a represented party,” Crinnian said. And furthermore, he said, the email now may be evidence in the upcoming trial.
The Beagle Freedom Project, known previously as Animal Rescue Media Education, finds homes for animals used in research. In August 2016 it began a series of Facebook posts claiming, “The University of Missouri purposely blinded six beagles and then killed them after their experiment failed.” The group, in some posts, also mentioned its pending open records lawsuit.
Other social media posts said researchers at MU’s College of Veterinary Medicine had used an “experimental acid” on the dogs’ eyes.
University spokespeople said that the group’s account of the experiment was incorrect and the research met ethical standards that govern the treatment of laboratory animals.
A study published in the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists Journal said the MU researchers used beagles in this research because their eyes are similar to those of humans, and there was no indication any of the dogs were ever permanently blinded.
According to the study, in the experiment to test a treatment for corneal ulcers, the left eyes of six beagles, under sedation, were wounded and the corneal tissue scraped away. That research was an attempt to determine whether hyaluronic acid could help restore or repair scratches to the cornea. Later, those dogs were euthanized so that scientists could remove their corneas for further research.
Details about the six beagles were not part of the initial open records request but were discovered by the group while looking through the university’s published animal research.
The university could be fined as much as $5,000 for a purposeful violation of the Missouri Sunshine Law.
