Ivy League Oops: $200K spermcicles melt
When it comes to sperm, rarely are accidents minor matters. Shara Rutberg reports on a recent incident that has Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in hot water.
From Shara:
While a recent sperm incident at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine is pregnant with punny possibilities, the damage was serious.
This week, a jury found the university liable for about $200,000 worth of damages caused when they lost $200,000 worth of Holsteiner sperm. Apparently, the spendy spermcicles were ruined because a “defective cryogenic storage tank,” destroyed the sperm from a Holsteiner stallion in 2004, reports ithacaindy.
Not the cryogenic unit used by Cornell (this one worked better).
To add insult to injury, when the school realized what had happened they sent the stallion’s owner, Lynn Reed, of Fox Run Farm in Millbrook, New York, a check for a measly $2,045 to cover the lost 212 units. Reed sued the university. This week’s jury priced the lost sperm at exactly $212,841.83. (The 83 cents may seem odd, but remember sperm are very tiny.)
“What they destroyed was unique, valuable” and irreplaceable, Anthony J. Siano, attorney for Fox Run Farm LLC of Millbrook, NY, told the Poughkeepsie Journal Wednesday.
Cornell did not comment on the ruling. They have two weeks to appeal the decision.
Ironically, points out the theatlanticwire.com, $212,000 is enough horse semen to pay for four years of undergrad tuition at Cornell if, in fact, tuition could be paid in horse tuition. Which, as of press time, it cannot.
A Fox Run baby NOT conceived from the lost sperm.
Go Riding.
