In 2016, Beagle Freedom Project was forced to bring a lawsuit against Mizzou for failure to disclose
documents pertaining to the dogs and cats it performs experimentation tests on in response to BFP’s
request under the state’s “Sunshine Law.” read more
The University of Missouri lost a major Sunshine Law case Friday involving records sought by an animal rights group. Circuit Judge Jeff Harris ruled the university violated the law by estimating it would cost more than $82,000 to fulfill the records request. In his ruling, Harris ordered the university to pay a $1,000 fine for a “knowing” violation of the law and the attorneys’ fees for the case filed by the Beagle Freedom Project in May 2016 and tried by Harris in July. “Defendants’ cost estimate was contrary to the…
A Boone County judge has sided with an animal rights organization in its lawsuit claiming the University of Missouri charged an excessive price for records about animals used in research. The Beagle Freedom Project sued MU in May 2016 after the university gave an estimate of $82,222 to fulfill a request for records about animals used in research. The request was part of a larger Beagle Freedom Project campaign that included requests to at least a dozen universities, most of which provided the records at little or no cost, according…
MU knowingly violated the Missouri Sunshine Law by overestimating the cost of providing records to an animal rights group, a Boone County Judge ruled Friday. After it was told a records request would cost over $82,000, the group Animal Rescue, Media & Education, also known as the Beagle Freedom Project, sued the university and the UM System records custodian, Paula Barrett, in May 2016. The group wanted documents for 179 dogs and cats used in MU research, experiments and testing. “After hearing the evidence, the Court finds that there is…
When members of the Beagle Freedom Project put in Sunshine law requests for records related to the care of lab animals at the University of Missouri-Columbia, the California-based non-profit wasn’t asking for anything too onerous: The university is required to maintain the records for federal inspectors. Yet somehow Mizzou determined that producing them would require staffers to be paid as much as $125/hour — and ultimately socked members with bills totaling $82,222 just to get a look. Unlike far too many individuals and, yes, journalists confronted with such stonewalling, the…
A group of animal-loving advocates has a deal for Mizzou. Beagle Freedom Project, the California-based non-profit suing the University of Missouri over an $82,000 bill for public records related to the care of animals used in medical research, says the university could face up to $900,000 in fines, plus attorney fees and costs, over its Sunshine law missteps. But the non-profit will settled the suit with Mizzou for just $1 — provided the university agrees to work with it to safeguard the animals’ well-being. Among its demands? That Mizzou develop…
COLUMBIA, MO (KSHB) — The University of Missouri acknowledges its researchers took part in a medical study that included wounding six beagle puppies before they were all euthanized. The study was published in the medical journal Veterinary Ophthalmology on April 7. It says six healthy, female beagle puppies (9-12 months) were wounded in their left corneas; three were then given an experimental drug and the other three received the control product without the acid. The result of the study concluded the topical drug “did not accelerate corneal wound healing.” ‘Optimend…
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMOX) – Another controversy at Mizzou — a rescue organization is suing researchers at the University of Missouri – Columbia who purposely blinded six beagles and then killed them after the project failed. The deaths of the dogs came to light after the Los Angeles-based Beagle Freedom Project, a non-profit that finds homes for animals who survive medical research, sued the university for attempting to charge the group an estimated $82,000 to make copies of its current research projects. While waiting on the suit, Kevin Chase, Beagle Freedom…
The study was published online in April, but the fallout is hitting now: University of Missouri-Columbia researchers are trying to identify “painless or non-invasive treatments for corneal injuries,” and devised a pilot study using six beagles to that end. The researchers wanted to study the effects of topical hyaluronic acid on corneal ulcers; under sedation, the dogs’ left corneas were wounded (the New York Daily News reports this blinded them in that eye), with half the group then acting as control and half administered the acid. Per the study, posted…
Six puppies were blinded for a University of Missouri-Columbia study, and then killed after the results were inconclusive. In a study published on April 7, four researchers at the university were looking to find the effects of topical hyaluronic acid to heal eye damage in dogs for its pilot study. After the six beagles — all less than a year old — were purposely blinded in their left eyes, the researchers split them up into two different groups, one that received the acid for treatment, and one that didn’t. Neither…
A quartet of professors at the University of Missouri-Columbia purposefully blinded six beagles — and then killed them after the research they were conducting failed to heal their wounded corneas. That’s according to a paper published in the 2016 Journal of Veterinary Opthamology, which details the ineffective treatment and the dogs’ untimely end. The pups were just nine to twelve months at the time they endured the experiment and then were killed. Dan Kolde is a St. Louis-based attorney for the Beagle Freedom Project, which seeks to rescue and protect the…