CASE STUDY 2

Peter is a graduate student in a laboratory that does a variety of research projects, including work with tissue culture and in vivo studies with mice.

Lately, a couple of Peter’s classmates, one of the lab technicians, and even Peter’s advisor have been bringing their dogs with them to work. At first, the dogs stayed in the office spaces, but now they seem to have free run of the laboratory area. This worries Peter a lot.

Some of the materials used in their lab work would be harmful to the dogs if ingested or walked upon (as would broken glassware). Since one of the dogs is a puppy that isn’t yet trained and has been leaving puddles on the lab floor, its presence introduces a safety hazard for the humans working in the lab (who might slip on the puddles).

Most worrying to Peter, the scent of the dogs seems to be stressing out the mice they are using in their studies, something that might affect the quality of the data they get from these in vivo studies as well as increasing mouse distress.

Peter has tried raising these concerns with his advisor, but his advisor has not taken them very seriously. Peter feels like this is a serious issue in terms of human safety, the wellbeing of the mice, the wellbeing of the pet dogs, and the data quality. However, he is afraid that if he reports the situation to the IACUC, even anonymously, it will be obvious to his advisor that he was the one who made the complaint.

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