Is 实验动物中心 (experimental animal center) ambiguous in that it could mean either "experimenting on animals" or "experimentally creating animals"? On our campus (Nankai University, Jinnan campus), we have this building:




  实验动物中心
  Shíyàn dòngwù zhōngxīn
  Experimental animal center


The English is ambiguous, and it could mean:


experimenting on animals, such as testing medicines on laboratory mice (although technically this is not what it says); or
creating "experimental animals", such as through genetic engineering, cloning, and so on.


Perhaps pedantically, in English it could also mean that the "animal center" is experimental.  (If you ignore context, this would be the correct meaning.)

The translation from Chinese to English is direct and literal (实验 = to experiment; 动物 = animals; 中心 = center), which makes me think the same ambiguity could occur in Chinese also.  However, maybe the Chinese grammar excludes one of these possibilities.

Question: Is 实验动物中心 (experimental animal center) ambiguous in that it could mean either "experimenting on animals" or "experimentally creating animals"?



Update: It seems the English name on this building has changed:
实验动物中心 sounds more like a place where they raise and offer animals for experiments, the keyword here is 动物.

If this is where animal experiments take place, then 动物实验中心 would be a better name, I think, because the keyword is 实验.

As for the meaning "experimentally creating animals" you mentioned, no, I will never think that way, nothing in this name suggests "creating".