The WOU Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) is a group of university and community members, as well as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. This university-level committee acts to oversee and ensure the ethical utilization of vertebrate animals (fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals) in university research, teaching, and outreach, and is under the purview of the Office of Research and Graduate Studies.

The primary role of the IACUC is to review, deliberate, approve, amend, and withhold approval of animal use protocols involving university personnel or facilities. The committee’s guiding principle for animal use protocol decisions is the weight of harm to animal subjects relative to the relevance of the research, teaching, or outreach to human or animal health, the advancement of knowledge, and the good of society.