From In Defense of Animals, Mill Valley, CA 94941
Animal Protection of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87192
http://www.vivisectioninfo.org/Coulston/financial/
Financial Statements Show Coulston Foundation's Imminent
Collapse
Alamogordo, NM (July 31, 2001) - The National Institutes
of Health has stopped funding the embattled Coulston Foundation, years
after the lab was first documented to be in violation of federal animal
welfare laws, In Defense of Animals (IDA) and Animal Protection New
Mexico (APNM) announced today.
According to NIH records (see
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/assurance/300index.htm), Coulston
no longer has an Animal Welfare Assurance on file with the NIH, making
the lab ineligible to receive federal research funds. IDA and APNM
predicted that the collapse of the foundation is now imminent.
"For two years, the only thing that stood between
Coulston and bankruptcy was the NIH's illegal $3 million bailout," said
IDA Research Director Eric Kleiman. "Now that the federal subsidy is
history, so is Coulston."
As evidence, the groups released financial statements
filed by The Coulston Foundation with the IRS that reveal that NIH funds
comprised 63 per cent of the lab's income for the fiscal year ending
6/30/00. The statements (available on the web at
http://www.vivisectioninfo.org/Coulston/financial/) also reveal:
* The lab's $840,364 in the bank on July 1, 1999 had
shrunk to $68,414 by June 30, 2000;
* CEO Fred Coulston gave the lab a gift of $733,280 and
a loan for an unspecified amount for "operating capital," while for the
fiscal year ending 6/30/99, Coulston personally gave it over $1.2
million (Coulston told the USDA in early 1999 he had already given $6.8
million to the lab);
* The lab's private income has dropped 35 per cent since
the fiscal year ending 6/30/98.
Current conditions at Coulston appear even worse than in
April 1999, when NIH auditors found that the lab was bringing in only
1/3 of the money necessary for operation, had $800,000 in unpaid bills,
and was on the verge of financial collapse. Even then, according to the
NIH audit (available on the web at
http://www.vivisectioninfo.org/vivcampaigns/NIHtestimony/tcf_financial.pdf),
the lab had steadily been losing private funding. Two months after that
audit and after repeated requests by Coulston for financial aid, the NIH
began its illegal bailout of the lab.
At the time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture had
filed three formal complaints against Coulston for multiple violations
of the Animal Welfare Act involving negligent chimpanzee deaths. The
lab's regulatory troubles intensified in August 1999 when Food and Drug
Administration inspectors documented hundreds of violations of
regulations meant to ensure human safety and data integrity in an
inspection of the lab. The FDA subsequently issued a rare Warning
Letter, prohibiting the lab from beginning any new studies under agency
purview.
As a result of the lab's mounting regulatory violations,
Coulston has lost even more of its private business base. In December
2000, the FDA identified continuing data integrity violations and found
that the lab had also violated the Warning Letter. And, this month, the
USDA filed an unprecedented fourth set of USDA charges for animal
welfare violations, including violations of a federal consent order and
more negligent chimpanzee deaths.
"Coulston's regulatory and financial troubles are
insurmountable and the lab's demise is long overdue," concluded APNM
development director Harriette Roller. "We will not rest until we hold
the NIH and other entities that helped create the Coulston disaster
accountable for funding the long-term care and permanent retirement of
the 300 chimpanzees who remain imprisoned within the lab's walls."
IDA is an international animal advocacy and rescue
organization based in Mill Valley, Calif. APNM is a statewide animal
advocacy organization based in Albuquerque.
Go on to Abused,
Abandoned Dolphins Rescued
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