By Kang Seung-woo
Animal rights groups have urged Seoul National University (SNU) to dismiss a renowned veterinary professor, who is accused of abusing a retired working dog in animal tests.
"SNU should fire Professor Lee Byeong-chun of the Department of Veterinary Medicine and scrap his research on animal cloning permanently," the groups said in a joint press conference in front of the department's building in Seoul, Wednesday.
The Korean Animal Rights Advocates (KARA), the Korean Welfare Animal Association and the Beagle Rescue Network (BRN) co-organized the event on the World Day for Laboratory Animals.
"As the Animal Protection Law stipulates that working dogs are banned from being used in animal experimentation, how could Lee conduct experiments on this dog. His animal experiments with a retired working dog, which is unprecedented in the world, have become an object of derision and show the reality of animal rights in Korea," they added.
The press conference took place as Lee and his research team are facing allegations that they conducted unethical animal experiments on Mei, a cloned beagle which worked as a detection dog searching for illegally brought food and agricultural products at Incheon International Airport for five years.
According to the animal rights groups, Lee took the retired dog in March 2018 for quarantine-related tests and returned it to the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency in November of that year. However, the canine died Feb. 27.
A video of Mei after coming back from Lee's laboratory, recently released to the public, showed it was scrawny and could hardly walk due to genital problems, raising speculation of animal abuse. Lee's alleged experiment involved the heredity of detection dogs' abilities, but the professor has not disclosed exactly what types of tests the dog was used for.
Lee still has two more cloned dogs undergoing experiments at his laboratory.
In addition to the Mei case, Lee is also under suspicion of using retired sniffer dogs in experiments and collecting their blood for donation to other dogs from 2008 to 2011.
Amid growing controversy, the school stopped Lee's research last week and is now looking into whether he violated ethical codes.
The groups also denounced the school's ethics committee on animal experimentation for being negligent.
"The ethics committee at SNU had only one person handling 1,400 animal experiments last year. Due to a lack of staff, Lee's unethical work may have received approval or passed without review," they said.
Under the current law, educational institutions such as college labs are not subject to the law on protection of laboratory animals. Only food, medicine and cosmetics companies are subject to it. Claiming that educational institutions should be subject to the law as well, the groups said the National Assembly cannot avoid accountability for Lee's actions.
They have urged the parliament to revise the law, but a relevant bill has been pending at the Assembly for three years.
Furthermore, the animal groups said government-led projects cloning animals should be scrapped and the government needs to carry out a comprehensive inspection of animal tests.
According to them, Korea is the lone country among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to post a steep growth in the number of animal experiments, with 3 million being killed every year.
Animal rights groups have urged Seoul National University (SNU) to dismiss a renowned veterinary professor, who is accused of abusing a retired working dog in animal tests.
 |
| Mei, a cloned Beagle, died three months after it returned from Seoul National University Professor Lee Byeong-chun's alleged animal experiments, according to the Beagle Rescue Network. / Korea Times file |
The Korean Animal Rights Advocates (KARA), the Korean Welfare Animal Association and the Beagle Rescue Network (BRN) co-organized the event on the World Day for Laboratory Animals.
"As the Animal Protection Law stipulates that working dogs are banned from being used in animal experimentation, how could Lee conduct experiments on this dog. His animal experiments with a retired working dog, which is unprecedented in the world, have become an object of derision and show the reality of animal rights in Korea," they added.
The press conference took place as Lee and his research team are facing allegations that they conducted unethical animal experiments on Mei, a cloned beagle which worked as a detection dog searching for illegally brought food and agricultural products at Incheon International Airport for five years.
According to the animal rights groups, Lee took the retired dog in March 2018 for quarantine-related tests and returned it to the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency in November of that year. However, the canine died Feb. 27.
A video of Mei after coming back from Lee's laboratory, recently released to the public, showed it was scrawny and could hardly walk due to genital problems, raising speculation of animal abuse. Lee's alleged experiment involved the heredity of detection dogs' abilities, but the professor has not disclosed exactly what types of tests the dog was used for.
Lee still has two more cloned dogs undergoing experiments at his laboratory.
In addition to the Mei case, Lee is also under suspicion of using retired sniffer dogs in experiments and collecting their blood for donation to other dogs from 2008 to 2011.
Amid growing controversy, the school stopped Lee's research last week and is now looking into whether he violated ethical codes.
The groups also denounced the school's ethics committee on animal experimentation for being negligent.
"The ethics committee at SNU had only one person handling 1,400 animal experiments last year. Due to a lack of staff, Lee's unethical work may have received approval or passed without review," they said.
Under the current law, educational institutions such as college labs are not subject to the law on protection of laboratory animals. Only food, medicine and cosmetics companies are subject to it. Claiming that educational institutions should be subject to the law as well, the groups said the National Assembly cannot avoid accountability for Lee's actions.
They have urged the parliament to revise the law, but a relevant bill has been pending at the Assembly for three years.
Furthermore, the animal groups said government-led projects cloning animals should be scrapped and the government needs to carry out a comprehensive inspection of animal tests.
According to them, Korea is the lone country among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to post a steep growth in the number of animal experiments, with 3 million being killed every year.
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