Despite efforts to improve its image, trouble continues to plague UW animal research laboratories.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has sent the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC), an international nonprofit organization working to promote the humane treatment of animals in science through voluntary accreditation and assessment programs, a letter asking for the UW's accreditation in animal testing to be revoked.

PETA's accusations follow a six-month probation that the UW recently served for its animal labs; complaints included lighting, sanitation and ventilation problems in the Warren G. Magnson Health Sciences Center.

The PETA letter reveals numerous violations that UW professors and lab workers have allegedly committed since the university entered its probationary sentence in November 2006.

The letter describes one incident where supposedly euthanized animals, "were found alive after being tossed into a cooler used for storing [dead] animal bodies."

Some of the violations listed involved unauthorized surgeries, surgeries conducted without the use of anesthetics and the failure to sterilize equipment.

Dr. Debra Durham, a former lecturer at the UW and a current member of PETA's Research and Investigations Department, submitted the letter on behalf of the organization.

"If [researchers] can't be bothered to ask permission, what can they be bothered to do?" Durham asked. "That's the most basic thing you can do on this campus, is ask permission to use animals and get approval. If you can't make that minimal step, I have no trust that other rules can be followed."

The letter was sent along with information obtained by Ruth Hanscom, a veterinary medical officer from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

During a routine inspection, Hanscom discovered one deceased animal, a monkey known as A01136, was tested repeatedly in violation of the written approved protocol.

The monkey was initially approved for two surgeries, one involving the implantation of an eye coil and the other a removal of cranial bone.

However, A01136 endured additional unauthorized surgeries for three years, which eventually caused the primate to bleed heavily from a major head implant.

Researchers discovered the animal dead in its cage the morning following the implant.

Hanscom said the "...cause of death for [A01136] was never determined because the researcher, in whose experimentation this animal was used, had cut off the primate's head and refused to allow the veterinary staff of the UW to examine it, despite a specific request for this vitally important organ."

PETA's letter also noted that one researcher, a former member of the UW Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), had publicly used "four pigs to test equipment for a company."

IACUC is the entity responsible for overseeing policies and procedures used on research animals at the UW.

"He didn't have permission to use those pigs for the testing," Durham said. "And he didn't have general permission to do commercial testing."

Durham was ashamed that the researcher's actions were ignored because the tests involved pigs.

"[That researcher's] general protocol involves surgery," Durham said. "It's not like; do pigs like to be petted? It's more severe."

One of the accused, Daniel Storm, a professor of pharmacology, was unable to comment on the issue because of ongoing legal proceedings.

He did, however, defend IACUC. Storm also expressed support for Nona Phillips, UW director of the Office of Animal Welfare and Virginia Batterson, a research associate professor of Comparative Medicine.

"In all of my dealings with the Animal Care Committee, I have found them to be a dedicated group of people working with the faculty to make sure that we all obey AAALAC regulations," Storm said. "The Animal Care Committee is a wonderful group of people who do everything possible to protect animals used in research and make sure we are in compliance with ever-changing regulations."

Claims in the PETA letter are being investigated, while AAALAC is expected to make a final decision on the UW's accreditation later this month.

Reach reporter Anthony Shelley at news@thedaily.washington.edu.