In January, the Utah State Records Committee ruled unanimously that the University of Utah had to provide student animal rights activist Jeremy Beckham with information about primate research at the university.
In Fall 2003, Beckham filed a request for records pertaining to primate research under the Freedom of Information Act. The University denied the request on the grounds that researchers could become the target of harassment if it released the information and that the research protocols needed to remain secret until the conclusion of the research projects.
But the State Records Committee agreed with Beckham that he has a right to access to the records — although the university will also have the right to redact confidential and/or proprietary information.
Some states, including California, also have regulations that require release of experimental protocols. Mary Hanley, executive vice president of the National Association for Biomedical Research, was absolutely right when she told The Salt Lake Tribune that universities should make such information public. Hanley said,
Most lab researchers are not accustomed to this kind of attention. They don’t want to fight back publicly. They’re scared. Sometimes the institutions have to do it for them. [But] the public is paying for this stuff so they have a right to see it. I’d tell them, ‘Here’s what we do, here’s who we are and we’re damn proud of it.'”
Beckham says that once he obtains the records he plans to post them to the web site of the his Utah Primate Freedom Project organization.
Sources:
Primate debate: U. won’t detail monkey experiments. Linda Fantin, Salt Lake Tribune, January 13, 2004.
Precedent established in primate case. Cara Wieser, Daily Utah Chronicle (University of Utah), January 16, 2004.
Student demands truth about animal testing. Cara Wieser, Daily Utah Chronicle (University of Utah, January, 15, 2004.