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Suit claims she opposed abuses at animal center

NEW IBERIA - A former employee with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's New Iberia Research Center has filed suit against the university, claiming she was forced to resign in early 2004 after complaining about mistreatment of animals at the center.

Narriman Fakier, represented by Lafayette attorney L. Clayton Burgess, lists in her suit a series of complaints she claims to have lodged with supervisors about the way chimpanzees and other primates were treated in the center.

Her allegations include some chimpanzees having their paws burned by lighters; another doused with scalding water, and monkeys in outdoor cages dying from cold weather in the winters of 2002 and 2003 because they were insufficiently protected from the elements.

The center is a primate facility run by the university that breeds nonhuman primates and provides pre-clinical safety testing and evaluations of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology products.

In the state district court suit, Fakier said that she has worked in the animal research field for more than 20 years, and worked at the center from September 2002 until her resignation in February 2004.

She also said that she "is a strong supporter of the responsible, lawful and proper use of animals in research."

Fakier alleges in the suit that she "blew the whistle" on several instances in which practices or actions at the center violated federal animal law, animal cruelty law and standards of employee safety.

A written statement released by UL-Lafayette on Monday said that all the allegations brought up by Fakier in the suit were investigated, and the university is "pleased with what was learned."

The statement listed the investigating agencies as the university's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, the Office for Laboratory Animal Welfare with the National Institutes for Health, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"Everyone's outcome was positive," ULL spokeswoman Julie Dronet said Monday.

Fakier's claims in the suit beyond her allegations of specific incidents with the animals include statements that officials with the center did not take follow-up action on her complaints and recommendations.

She says in the suit that, in the case of the worker who allegedly burned chimpanzees with lighters and scalded one with water, she fired the worker responsible, but officials at the center neither called on law enforcement to follow up with a criminal case against the worker nor approved her plan to calm the chimpanzees that had been traumatized.

Fakier also claims in the suit that:

She argued against plans to separate 10 3-year-old chimpanzees that had lived in two groups of five into 10 separate cages where they could neither see nor touch one another.

She argued against using a sick chimpanzee that had not recovered from an earlier study in further studies, but was ignored and the chimpanzee later died, the lawsuit said.

Employees directly connected with the health and welfare of the animals allegedly were unaware of federal animal welfare laws.

The center allegedly routinely violated federal guidelines for anesthetizing chimpanzees, and used water hoses to break up fights between chimpanzees that awoke from anesthesia.

She complained repeatedly about infestations of roaches and mice in chimpanzee housing.

Fakier says in the suit that, when she met with center Director Thomas Rowell to voice her concerns, "he said that her concerns would not be addressed by NIRC, and, if she had a problem with that, she should quit."

She claims that, when she complained in writing in February 2003 about the proposed relocation of the 3-year-old chimpanzees, she was forced to resign for reasons of use of poor judgment, failure to follow proper chain of command, failure to comply with counseling and threatening the security of the center and insubordination.

Fakier's suit claims her employment was terminated as retaliation for her attempts to "blow the whistle" on center activities, that has free speech rights were violated.

It also calls for unspecified damages for the claims.

The university's statement said that the school "is saddened by and denies the allegations" in the lawsuit.

The statement adds that the center has received accreditation from the Association for Assessment and Accreditation for Laboratory Animal Care, and was last evaluated in 2003.