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CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS LEADING TO MULTIPLE COUNTS OF CRIMINAL ANIMAL
CRUELTY FILED AGAINST THE NIH'S "ALAMOGORDO PRIMATE FACILITY"
OPERATOR
Prepared by In Defense of Animals /
September 7th, 2004
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August 29, 2003 - IDA's network of whistleblowers states that at an unusual all-employee
meeting convened by Dr. Rick Lee, the APF Director makes it clear that CRL
knows of the D.A.'s criminal investigation, mentions that the D.A. has
knowledge of alleged cruelty regarding Ashley's death and unnamed others,
and threatens all employees with polygraph tests in an attempt to find out
the identities of individuals who may have leaked information to IDA. Such threats would be illegal, and would violate the federal Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988, the New Mexico Human Rights Act, and the federal Animal Welfare Act's regulation prohibiting retaliation against whistleblowers. Lee states that IDA made a terrible mistake by going to the D.A., since the APF is located on a federal Air Force base, is a government facility with government-"owned" animals, and that the D.A. has no jurisdiction and can't even get onto the Air Force base without permission. The assembled employees are also forbidden from speaking to anyone about the situation; this prohibition apparently includes law enforcement such as the D.A.
To date, IDA has been unable to ascertain whether these threats and
directives came solely from Lee, or from CRL corporate management. A search
warrant later executed by District Attorney Scot Key at the APF on August
3, 2004 will provide further evidence of this apparent noncooperation by
CRL.
September 12, 2003 - IDA submits a letter (Greenwood
Letter) to Rep. James Greenwood, chair of the Subcommittee investigating the NIH's management and oversight of billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded extramural grants, regarding the information that IDA has submitted to District Attorney Key and his subsequent criminal investigation at the APF. IDA informs Rep. Greenwood of the illegal polygraph threats and its belief that the allegations against the NIH/CRL are worse than anything ever documented at The Coulston Foundation. (The violations at the Coulston lab are what prompted Rep. Greenwood's broad investigation of the NIH). IDA also states that it is unaware of The Coulston Foundation ever threatening employees with polygraph tests. IDA relates its concern about the apparent climate of intimidation at the APF as well as its incredulity that, after the years of unprecedented violations at the Coulston lab, the NIH apparently did not exercise that much more due diligence to ensure that the APF complies in every possible way with even the most basic standards of care. IDA cc's Dr. Elias Zerhouni, Director of the NIH, Dr. Judith Vaitukaitis, Director of the NIH's National Center for Research Resources - which funds the APF and is responsible for the day-to-day management of the facility - and Charles River Laboratories's CEO James Foster and vice-president Dennis Shaughnessy. To date, IDA has never been contacted by anyone from the NIH about the allegations of cruelty submitted to the D.A. IDA does not know if the NIH ever contacted District Attorney Scot Key.
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