The University of British Columbia (UBC) used over 200,000 animals for testing in 2010, according to statistics released by the university Oct. 28.
“It’s shocking,” said Brian Vincent, director of Stop UBC Animal Research. “It begs the question of whether UBC has not been honest with the public when they have reported in the past that they use about 100,000 animals a year, because all of a sudden now we have over 200,000.”
University officials said they released this information to be more transparent, and they are the first school in Canada to release such data, according to The Globe and Mail.
But Vincent said the information UBC released isn’t good enough.
“The data is largely useless,” Vincent said. “The reason it is useless, with the exception of the total number [of animals], is that it’s misleading.”
According to Vincent, the data revealed that 31 animals were exposed to category E procedures, and that those animals received anesthesia, which he claims is untrue.
Category E procedures cause “severe pain near, at, or above the pain tolerance threshold of unanesthetized, conscious animals,” according to the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC)
Anesthesia was indeed used, according to the UBC report, but Vincent isn’t convinced.
“They’re misleading the public if they say that 31 animals were used in category E procedures but received anesthesia,” Vincent said.
The data also shows that about 70,000 animals were exposed to category D procedures, which, according to the CCAC, causes “moderate to severe distress or discomfort.”
“[This is] deeply troubling,” Vincent said.
Vincent said he’s upset the university didn’t specify what particular species were used for testing.
The release of this information is a “good first step,” but more needs to be done, he said.
“Because the information is so limited in scope, it doesn’t provide a comprehensive picture of what UBC is doing to animals,” Vincent said.
“In order to get a better picture of what UBC is doing to animals, we need more data.”
A representative from UBC could not be reached for comment.
