Donald Boisvert, a research professor in the department of surgery at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, has left his research post in Alberta to become executive director of the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC), based in Ottawa. He began in the position August 4.
CCAC is a peer-review organization that monitors the scientists who use animals for research, education, and testing. There are roughly 2 million animals in Canadian labs, and Boisvert says he hopes to make CCAC more accessible to researchers with questions about animal treatment. The organization was formed in 1968 by a group of scientists in order to, in the words of its mandate, “work for the improvement of animal care and use on a Canada-wide basis.”
For the past 10 years, Boisvert has been involved in the care and treatment of laboratory animals. “I neither oppose nor promote experimental animal use,” says Boisvert, who...
Ron Kaufman