Group lobs complaint against UC Davis when rabbit, guinea pig die

A view of the campus from the RMI North building which houses the wine and food department at UC Davis in Davis, California, on Monday, January 25, 2016. In a complaint, filed Monday with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Ohio-based group Stop Animal Exploitation Now said UC Davis researchers were negligent in allowing the two deaths and called on regulators to take “meaningful action against this lawbreaking lab.” less A view of the campus from the RMI North building which houses the wine and food department at UC Davis in Davis, California, on Monday, January 25, 2016. In a complaint, filed Monday with the U.S. Department of ... more Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 33 Caption Close Group lobs complaint against UC Davis when rabbit, guinea pig die 1 / 33 Back to Gallery

A guinea pig and a rabbit inadvertently killed in UC Davis research laboratories are at the center of a new complaint from an animal rights foundation seeking to end the use of animals in lab research.

In the complaint dated Monday and sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Ohio group Stop Animal Exploitation Now said UC Davis researchers were negligent in allowing the two deaths and called on regulators to take “meaningful action against this lawbreaking lab.”

The guinea pig died in February when it fell 5 feet from an elevated cage. The rabbit died in 2017 when an intravenous valve was used improperly.

“We strive to conduct humane and proper research, and we try to learn from it,” said UC Davis spokesman Andy Fell.

The dead animals were among hundreds of thousands of lab animals used for research at the Davis campus. They include 400,000 fish, 135,000 mice, 4,000 primates, 200 rabbits and 25 guinea pigs, Fell said.

Michael Budkie, the executive director of the animal rights group, said the deaths are part of a “multi-year pattern of fatal negligence” and said such incidents call into question all work done by campus scientists.

The most recent complaints follow 13 reported infractions of animal care policy at UC Davis recorded from 2014 to 2016 by USDA inspectors. In 2016, UC Davis acknowledged and paid a $5,000 fine in connection with the death of another laboratory rabbit killed through an anesthesia error.

“If they can’t perform a basic procedure without killing an animal, how can we believe their research at all?” Budkie said.

Fell said the lab technician involved in the more recent guinea pig death had received additional training and the lab protocol that led to the rabbit’s death had been revised.

Fell said animal research at UC Davis is done safely and conscientiously, and that mistakes are rare.

“We do animal research because of its benefit to human health,” he said. “It’s strictly regulated and humanely conducted.”

Budkie and his group have called for an end to all research involving lab animals.

“Animal research is old technology,” he said. “There are other methods.”

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com