Date
April 19, 2000
Contact
Eric Kleiman
717-939-3231
Suzanne Roy
415-898-2720
In Defense of Animals
131 Camino Alto
Mill Valley
CA 94941
IDA is an international, California-based animal advocacy organization dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals by defending their rights, welfare and habitats.
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Renquist had been Recruited to Clean Up Lab’s Regulatory Mess; New President Described by the NIH as "Evasive" and Uncooperative Alamogordo, NM (April 19, 2000)—The Coulston Foundation has lost its latest president, In Defense of Animals (IDA) announced today. Dr. David Renquist, a veterinarian who was tasked specifically with cleaning up the lab’s regulatory mess, resigned last month after less than six months on the job. Renquist’s resignation is another serious blow to the lab, which is facing bankruptcy in the face of mounting debts and an ever-worsening record of human safety, data integrity and animal welfare violations that has driven away its private clientele. TCF has now had four presidents in 16 months. "TCF made much of recruiting Renquist as a panacea to the lab’s mounting problems. CEO Fred Coulston even claimed that the lab’s future was in Renquist’s hands," said IDA president Elliot Katz, DVM. "That future didn’t last very long, and seems cloudier than ever with this crushing departure." In an August 16, 1999 email to officials from the NIH, which is the lab’s principal remaining source of income, Renquist stated that his primary goals as president would be to correct TCF’s myriad of regulatory violations and to attain accreditation by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International. "Given the appropriate resources, and internal management changes, coupled with Dr. [Fred] Coulston’s personal assurances, we can move on a fast track to mutual goals of accreditation and quality research and veterinary programs," he wrote. While stating that Fred Coulston was his "mentor," Renquist also boasted of a "new vision" for TCF. "The ‘new vision’ for TCF has turned into the same old nightmare for the chimpanzees," Katz continued, noting that at least seven died during Renquist’s tenure. "Clearly, Fred Coulston’s word was meaningless. TCF’s regulatory violations are beyond repair." IDA said Ronald Couch, a long-time Coulston employee, is now TCF’s acting president. Couch was the study director involved in the grossly negligent deaths of the chimpanzees Terrence, Muffin and Holly from the well-known side effects of a drug being tested. The USDA has charged TCF with a multitude of Animal Welfare Act violations in conjunction with those deaths. "TCF is now again under a management team that has been documented to have misled federal officials and misused federal funds," Katz charged, again referencing internal NIH documents. "How long will NIH be allowed to throw millions of our tax dollars away to support this unscrupulous and financially bankrupt private company?" TCF has been formally charged an unprecedented three times by the USDA for federal Animal Welfare Act violations. It is also operating under a federal order that prevents the lab from initiating any studies under the purview of the Food and Drug Administration. TCF is also currently facing another official USDA investigation, the seventh in as many years. Since 1993, at least 40 non-human primates have died "unexpectedly" at TCF, many under circumstances that suggest gross negligence and abuse. Further information about the Coulston Foundation