VA-Funded ILAR Committee Appears to Lack Appropriate Expertise; Comment NOW! The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has contracted a study by the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR) entitled, “Assessment of the Care and Use of Dogs in Research Funded by or Conducted at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.” According to the mission statement, this study will, “review the care and use of dogs in research funded by or conducted at the VA. The study will evaluate whether dogs are, or will continue to be, necessary for any type of research directly related to the mission of the VA.” Concerns have been brought to NABR by many about the current make-up of the committee for this study. At least one committee member appears to have a conflict of interest and one comes with a history of activism against animal research. Still others appear not to have any experience with canines as a research model. However, the current committee is provisional and the biomedical research community is asked to provide feedback on the current selections (scroll down to comment). NABR urges researchers and animal care professionals, especially those with canine model experience, to provide their feedback on committee selections to ILAR no later than December 6. NABR | 1100 Vermont Avenue, NW, Suite 1100 | Washington, DC 20005 | Tel 202.857.0540 | Fax 202.659.1902 | info@nabr.org