f6098d8b__and_Use_of_Laboratory_Animals__Comments
[ID] 71 [Entry Date] 04/14/2011 at 05:27:04 PM [Affiliation] Organization [Organization Name] University of Texas at Dallas [Organization City and State] Richardson, TX [Comments] 
Comment 1: No valid need exists for adopting the altered guidelines in the 8th edition of the guide for use of laboratory animals. Exacerbating this lack of validation is the fiscal (financial) climate under which research must exist: stringent budgetary and space limitations. With the current political climate, it seems incredible to ask institutions to make vast new expenditures for new animal housing and/or to cut the number of experiments performed to meet arbitrary new requirements. Our own facility is only two years old, and all new caging and equipment was purchased at that time. Are we to throw away this large investment (which should be amortized over a decade or more) and begin anew, at a higher cost to every investigator on the entire campus? Or are we required to increase per diem costs, effectively reducing the yield of every single publicly funded research project? That hardly seems the route to fiscal responsibility both political parties propound currently. Our ACUC strongly recommends against ANY such new regulation. Comment 2: NO to adoption of the new 8th edition! Leave current guidelines in place as they stand; veterinary staff at the local level are more than well qualified to make additional recommendations!
Listing of Public Comments on Proposed Adoption and Implementation of the Eighth Edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals