SAN ANGELO, TX — Tom Green County District Court Judge Barbara L. Walther ruled Thursday, July 11, that Angelo State University must release public records related to an experiment that caused the deaths of dozens of mice.
The experiment, known as the “foster care study,” aimed to study the foster care system’s impact on human children.
According to information provided, the ruling overturns Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s November 2022 decision, which sided with the university in withholding the records.
In this study, baby mice were used to mimic the effects of multiple foster placements on children.
Mice were removed from their biological mothers at different intervals, tested for “anxiety-like” behavior, killed, and their brains were examined.
The study concluded that mice in a single foster home were more resilient than those in multiple homes.
Stephen Farghali, a research advocacy coordinator with the Physicians Committee, criticized the study in a November 2022 complaint, questioning the necessity of killing 81 animals to make claims about human foster care.
The Physicians Committee also filed a Texas Public Information Act request in September 2022 for protocols and annual reports related to the study from Angelo State’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).
The university denied the request, claiming IACUCs are medical committees and exempt from disclosure.
Judge Walther ruled that Angelo State’s IACUC does not meet the legal definition of a medical committee and that the requested information should be released.
“This ruling shows that animal experimenters in Texas cannot invent loopholes to hide the indefensible things they’re doing to animals,” stated Deborah Press, associate general counsel with the Physicians Committee.
We reached out to ASU for comment, and we will update this story when we receive a response.
Subscribe to the LIVE! Daily
Required
Post a comment to this article here: