The above newspaper article ran this week after an anonymous group released a new fur farm list & guide to releasing furbearing animals from fur farms. In response to being included in the guide as a “target”, WSU responded that they no longer imprison mink. Or at least, according to the article, no longer house mink “on campus,” leaving open the possibility the research is done off campus. Here’s what we know: As recently as 2010/2011, the Fur Commission USA gave funding to Washington State University. That is on record. Keep this in mind when you read the following quote, from WSU’s director of WSU’s Office of the Campus Veterinarian Steve Russell. The quote is deceptive at best, and probably a complete lie. “WSU has not conducted any animal-based research for the fur industry in many years” Again, the evidence shows this to be simply untrue. If he disputes this, he’ll have to take it up with the Fur Commission USA, who publishes what research they fund each year. WSU is on that list. Russell’s might attempt to get off on a technicality with his use of the “animal-based” qualifier, and say that they are doing non-animal based research for the fur industry (the facts on this are unclear), but there is no question the quote is deliberately deceptive. We can assume everything else Russell says in the article may be a lie as well. He states there are no mink housed at the address listed in the fur farm list. This may be true, and the fur farm list said as much. The address listed was described as “inconclusive”, and based on mostly circumstantial evidence. (According to WSU, the sheds suspected of housing mink actually house rabbits). In fact, he says there are no mink held on campus at all. The last available USDA report (from 2009) does seem to reflect that there are no mink at WSU. It can be viewed here. Our take: In this article, the school seems to be trying very hard to make a non-target out of its fur research program by obscuring the facts. As always, we encourage anyone with inside information to submit to whistleblower [at]...