Two adult rats were beheaded by the unnamed Tulane researchers using scissors, instead of a guillotine under anesthesia, a “significant deficiency” of globally recognized Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) protocols, the notice states.
When the guillotine was used, to euthanize eight other rats, the blade was found to be blunt; and anesthesia administered to more than 200 other rats was already beyond its expiration date.