WSU refutes PETA's 'abuse' allegations

Pullman, Wash.-Washington State University (WSU) officials deny People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) allegations that the veterinary college allows goats to be bludgeoned for medical training practices.

Accusations surfaced last month when a "whistleblower" informed PETA that goats used in a recent exercise were struck with sledgehammers to simulate injuries sustained in automobile accidents. The procedure allegedly was conducted at WSU for the benefit of medical students at the University of Washington (UW), group representatives say.

PETA also alleges that the veterinary technicians present had difficulty keeping the animals in the range of optimal anesthesia that would ensure insensibility to pain.

WSU spokesman Charlie Powell claims the college has never contracted with UW. The activists could be mistakenly referring to a contract with Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane to provide a portion of the American College of Surgeon's Advanced Trauma Life Support training using goats under anesthesia, he says.

That course, conducted in September 2002, no longer exists. Mannequins now have replaced live animals.

"PETA's allegations that animals received blows of any kind from any instrument during this course are untrue," WSU Dean Dr. Warwick Bayly says. "We urge PETA and the media to question the source of the allegations and if they have evidence of a crime as alleged to take it forward to law enforcement for action. We welcome any investigation by appropriately licensed authorities into matters of animal care and use in WSU's veterinary college."