More Repercussions From OSU President's Decision

Lawmaker and veterinarian blasts Oklahoma State for study cancellation
Dec 21, 2009 DVM NEWSMAGAZINE

Oklahoma City, Okla. -- Oklahoma State Representative, veterinarian and farmer Phil Richardson is not keeping quiet about Oklahoma State University's recent cancellation of an anthrax study that would have required testing and euthanasia on primates.

"I bleed Orange as much as anyone, but I am deeply concerned by the actions of Oklahoma State University officials, which appear designed to cater to animal-rights fanatics instead of providing sound education in agricultural sciences," Richardson says in a Dec. 17 statement on his Web site. Richardson earned his DVM from Oklahoma State in 1967 and is a member of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association, the Oklahoma Pork Council, the Oklahoma Veterinary Medical Association and the Oklahoma State Alumni Board.

The college embarked on a plan to establish itself as a leader in infectious disease research in the 1990s by developing laboratories and other research facilities with the full knowledge of university administrators, Richardson contends. Yet, the recent cancellation of a study on anthrax that would have required the euthanasia of primates involved in the research undermines that plan, he says.

"The decision is consistent with several made in the past year to curry favor with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the wife of the university's major donor, an avowed animal-rights activist," Richardson says. "The HSUS spends millions of dollars on programs that seek to economically cripple meat and dairy producers, eliminate the use of animals in biomedical research and eliminate hunting. It is impossible to follow all the tentacles of the organization, but its underlying goal is to destroy animal agriculture."

Richardson's accusations follow Oklahoma State president’s controversial decision to terminate a federally funded research project that would have studied the effects of anthrax on live baboons at the school's Center for Veterinary Health Sciences. Read More

The story about the Oklahoma State President nixing an approved animal research project because of pressure from billionaire donor Madeline Pickens and animal rights activists isn’t silently fading away. Not only is this giving a black eye to the university, the knowledge lost by killing this project is unnecessarily putting human lives at risk. The lack of leadership being shown by OSU President Burns Hargis is embarrassing for a land grant university of this caliber.

OSU Bows To Activist Threat

Animal rights vs. research: OSU halts anthrax study
By Sharon Schmickle Published Wed, Dec 9 2009 9:49 am

Worried about stepped up activity by militant animal-rights groups, administrators at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater abruptly cancelled an anthrax vaccine study that would have killed dozens of baboons.

"There are regrettably some violent acts committed by animal-rights groups, and the president felt we should take our breath here and not do this project just yet," OSU vice-president of research, Stephen McKeever, told the journal Nature.

In Oklahoma, the project, funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and led by Shinichiro Kurosawa of Boston University School of Medicine, had been approved by the OSU animal-care committee in September and was awaiting review by the biosafety committee when OSU President Burns Hargis vetoed it, calling the study "controversial," Nature reported.

Kurosawa had hoped to use the OSU animal facility because it has the required level of biosafety containment for anthrax. Along with collaborators, he had planned to investigate the biochemical pathways that lead to death following anthrax infection, and to test an anthrax vaccine.

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The real controversy here is the fact that the OSU President felt that a potential vaccine for anthrax that could save untold millions of lives wasn’t worth it. The lives of the baboons and the threats from animal rights activists won out over the greater good. The threat of an anthrax attack is very real in today’s world. It’s unfortunate that this decision will perpetuate that threat rather than end it.