Some more questions ...
1. Do/Did RC, his sister and brother in law, and JH all have the same boss?
2. If so, is he being reprimanded now that 4 people that work under him aren't there for work? Surly that makes for a heavier workload...somebody has to pick up the slack...
3. Who is taking care of the animals now that the basement lab is closed off...or could the animals have been moved to a different room?
4. Have the animals been checked to see if any dna or forensic evidence was left on their fur, droppings, or in their cages?
5. Could the argument actually have been about overcrowding of a colony which could promote a high level of ammonia and allow for disease to set in?
6. Are the pregnant mice housed in the basement lab? Or do the investigators keep them seperate at their own offices/lab?
1. If they all had the same job title and they were in the same animal facility, then yes they would have the same supervisor. Each animal facility typically has a facility manager/operations manager.
2. It's not the supervisor's fault, so probably not reprimanded. Typically, they will have a number of options to cover the duties: (a) call in workers from other facilities on campus to pitch in; (b) overtime; (c) modify scheduled duties; and probably others that do not come to mind.
3. My understanding is that they are allowing essential research personnel to enter to perform essential tasks.
4. Why?
5. If there was an argument that escalated and if the argument was about animal health/cage cleanliness, there could be any number of reasons for such an argument, including but not limited to overcrowding, not weaning pups at the appropriate time (if this was a breeding colony), not changing the cage when too dirty, etc.
6. Lab animals are typically not housed for long periods of time in the researchers' laboratories; they are housed in the vivarium (which is the basement lab that everyone is referring to) where the cages can be changed, the environment is controlled (humidity, temp, light:dark cycle), where the animal health technicians can monitor health, etc. Labs that do house animals outside of a vivarium/lab animal facility have to be inspected regularly.