Animal cruelty?

PETA seeks investigation on Yale postdoctoral fellow’s animal experiments

NEW HAVEN >> PETA this week sent a letter to a district attorney’s office in Massachusetts requesting an investigation on past research by a current postdoctoral student at Yale University that the organization said involved inhumane experiments on wild birds.

The letter sent to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan’s office alleges a current Yale University postdoctoral fellow killed about 250 songbirds for experiments and subjected them to painful experiments between 2011 and 2015, according to the complaint submitted by attorney Elisabeth Custalow.

An employee at Ryan’s office confirmed this week her office had received the letter, though Ryan’s office declined to comment further.

PETA claims the scientist’s experiments are not exempt under Massachusetts’s laws and an investigation could result in charges.

The Register is not naming the postdoctoral fellow because the person has not been charged and the DA’s office did not confirm whether it had opened an investigation; PETA confirmed as of Thursday, the DA’s office had not responded to its letter.

Yale University spokesman Thomas Conroy said in an email that the university did not have a comment.

“(The scientist’s) conduct appears to be in flagrant violation of Massachusetts’ established public policy promoting humane treatment of animals, as well as of Massachusetts’ statutory prohibitions on inflicting unnecessary cruelty on animals,” Custalow wrote in the complaint. According to the complaint, the scientist’s research in Middlesex County in Massachusetts included capturing and housing birds in “unnatural conditions,” and subjecting them to, “painful, stressful, and unnecessary experimental procedures before killing them.”

The complaint alleges the scientist captured wild house sparrows by using seed traps and mist nets at feeders in Medford, Arlington and Somerville. The birds were part of the researcher’s studies for a doctoral degree at Tufts University.

One alleged incident is detailed in a research paper co-authored by the scientist involving wound healing in birds published in 2015. The research involved creating an open wound on the legs of nine house sparrows. PETA’s letter alleges the birds were injected with a chemical to destroy their adrenal glands as part of the experiment. The research paper was published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Several of the scientist’s research papers are cited in the letter. The research paper involving open wounds was co-written with two other scientists and explains the procedures performed on the birds were done in accordance with, “Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) guidelines,” and “all protocols were approved by the Tufts University Animal Care and Use Committee.”

A veterinarian cited in PETA’s complaint said she reviewed the research paper and said the birds likely suffered from an open wound and ongoing stress. The letter said there was no indication pain medication was given for the leg wounds.

Alka Chandna, who works in PETA’s Laboratory Investigations Department, said formal complaints have also been filed to agencies including the National Institute of Health and U.S. Department of Agriculture. This case is significant because it involves experiments conducted outside a laboratory setting, PETA states. The letter cites several state laws pertaining to animal cruelty they believe were violated.

“Most state anti-cruelty statutes, most of them exempt properly conducted scientific research on (animals),” Chandna said. “Massachusetts is not such a state. Massachusetts does not have a blanket exemption for treatment of animals in laboratories.”

The letter alleges other instances of inhumane treatment for research purposes, including having the usually social sparrows confined to small spaces with one other bird, plucking off feathers in wildcaught European starlings, and drawing 0.05 percent of body weight in blood from other birds.

Custalow said in the complaint that the bird’s suffering in the experiments was unnecessary, before further suggesting sparrows specifically are “poor models” for experiments concerning adrenal sensitivity.

Another experiment involved giving wild-caught sparrows crude oil to determine the effects of six weeks worth of exposure to study how it impacted hormones.

The resulting research was published in another a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Chandna said animals experiments are by and large conducted in a system where, “cruelty is entrenched.”

Reach Esteban L. Hernandez at 203-680-9901