Emails, Texts and Other Documents Related to WSU Bear Center

8/17/2019 Emails, Texts and Other Documents Related to WSU Bear Center

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K

From: Jansen, Heiko Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2016 9:19 AMTo: Robbins, Charles TSubject: DRAFT...report comment

Charlie, I’m sending this draft to you first to get your input. It doesn’t need to go further if you think it’s notgoing to be productive or even counterproductive. Thanks. H

Keith and Charlie: I’m drafting an email, whether or not it sees the light of day is clearly out of my control, butI want to highlight several errors in the “management” report that I feel must be rectified because they paint afalse impression of the previous events. This is really long and I apologize for taking up more of your precioustime. As I was never privy to the report prior to it being published I feel entirely within my rights to raise myconcerns.

Please read the following as my own words and nothing more. Who this should go to is unclear to me as I feelout of the loop in these discussions. Nevertheless, I’m personally devastated by the picture being painted andeven more-so given the apparent focus on bears that were part of my study. I feel strongly that the provost’soffice hear these concerns and publish an amendment to the “management” report. Keith, I know you don’tthink this is something that will happen, but it needs to be heard - by someone.

DRAFT STATEMENT: I would like to raise (enter into the record) concerns I have with the accuracy ofseveral statements made in the recent “Management" report published on the WSU bear center website onMarch 9, 2016 and subsequently reported in several media outlets. My concern originates with a meeting I hadwith ‘the’ (or a committee) including Craig Parks and Merle Heineke and Margaret Benson on November 10,2015 at 2:30pm. This meeting ensued following an earlier meeting with Dean Bryan Slinker wherein Irequested that I be able to answer questions apparently being raised by ‘the’ committee (I don’t recognize anyof the other names on the report so cannot attest to the fact that this was even an ‘official' committeemeeting). Regardless, Dr. Parks was taking notes and that information should have been recorded. If verified, itwould/should confirm several factual errors that appeared in the published report found on page 5 (sectiontitled “Findings-Adherence to Regulations and Policy). I take this matter personally, as these studies (IACUCapproved) involved and were related to my specific area of scientific inquiry. The errorsare summarized below.

1. Published : “Bears are hibernated entirely or mostly on site. When a second site has to be used, two or three bears will be placed into culvert traps located in 199G."

Response : This statement is entirely misleading. Bears are NEVER housed TOGETHER in culverttraps. How could two or three 200-600 lb bears fit into a single 4x8 foot trap? Rather, they are housedindividually. This is required for the activity monitoring and circadian rhythm detection that was part of ourIACUC approved study, even the exception to house individually was approved.

2. Published : “Culvert traps are also expected to have video cameras to allow for continued monitoring, butthe Center’s traps do not,”

Response : This statement is summarily false. All culvert traps have continuous video monitoring. Early on(2010, not 2015) the year we had to euthanize the two young bears, the culvert traps had video cameras (tape

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variety) recording 24/7. We would replace the tapes very 4-5 days and analyze all the video data to determine ifabnormal activity was occurring (all in the IACUC protocol). The evidence that two of the three bears weremore active than expected, even though a third sibling was hibernating normally (this was never mentioned), ledus to remove the bears from 199G, and attempt to feed them, all to no avail.

3. Published : “Unknown to us is whether the Center’s employment of traps is consistent with best practice.”

Response : The size of the traps is similar to that of natural bear dens and was approved by IACUC. As far as Iknow, no standards exist for hibernation den size. Any statement made to indicate that this size den is somehownon-standard is simply based on speculation. Furthermore, how can statements be made to suggest that “sixinches of straw or wood chips for bedding” be mandated when no such standards exist (again, as far as I amaware).

4. Published : "Bears who sleep directly on the metal run the risk of developing sores."

Response : While this might be true for bed-ridden humans, there is nothing to suggest that this occurs in bears. Again, unfounded speculation. Good intentions aside, straw in a culvert trap with water available wouldcreate a soupy mess that probably would be worse for the bears, require frequent replacement and therebycountermand the purpose of the studies being performed. We actually considered this, and instead opted for

drainage holes in the traps and elevated grating. This was all mentioned in my statements to ‘the’ committee.

5. Published : “In 2015* (footnote corrected date as was the Spokesman Review report, so someone took thetime to fact-check the info!) the Center placed two compatible yearling bears in a trap.”

Response : This statement is false (also see 1. above). Bears were housed individually. This, in retrospect ishow we came to realize that bears need to “learn” how to hibernate. No one knew this before and so we couldnot have predicted the outcome. Also, a third sibling survived hibernation with no problems, thus, the situationis clearly more complicated.

Again, I’m sorry to give you yet more to read. But hopefully I can garner some support to have this sent up to

the provost and an amendment drafted to correct the errors. I will defer to your collective opinion on how to proceed, but at least I’ve tried to set the record straight.

Heiko

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