Feds slam Louisiana primate research lab for cruelty

May 14, 10:28 PMAnimal Welfare ExaminerShalin Gala

Previous Next

2 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Animal Welfare Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Photo: Monkey at Covance / PETA

This week the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s New Iberia Research Center, one of the nation’s largest primate testing facilities, violated the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) six times, causing many of its 6000 moneys and 325 chimpanzees to needlessly suffer.

These problems were brought to light in an undercover investigation conducted by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

According to HSUS, the USDA cited the primate center for failing to:

• Provide adequate heat to primates in outdoor housing
• Monitor sedated primates to prevent injuries during recovery from anesthesia
• Transport chimpanzees in a secure manner to minimize the risk of injury to the animals
• Have written guidelines on how to tranquilize chimpanzees with a dart gun so that the procedure can be evaluated by the university's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and possible alternatives can be found
• Have written guidelines on how to help primates adjust to the "pole-and-collar" technique of handling and restraint
• Have written documentation, reviewed by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, justifying why primates used in protocols have been isolated from one another
 

HSUS is now alerting members to contact their congressional representatives to support the Great Ape Protection Act, a bill currently pending in Congress that if passed would end all invasive research on chimpanzees in the United States, retire approximately 500 chimpanzees to permanent sanctuary, and end all funding for the breeding of federally-owned chimpanzees.

The problems uncovered by HSUS are not anything new; rather, they seem to be par for the course when it comes to animal testing. For instance, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) recently conducted an undercover investigation at a major Covance laboratory in Vienna, Virginia. The group alleged violations of the AWA in a complaint filed with the USDA, which according to PETA issued the following citations:

• Animals were deprived of sufficient veterinary care and euthanasia
• Animals were subjected to painful procedures but were denied pain relief
• Primates were subjected to physically abusive handling
• Monkeys were not provided with psychological enrichment and socialization
• Dogs were not provided with adequate housing
• Dogs were not exercised

With these groundbreaking investigations, HSUS and PETA have put animal experimenters on the alert, and hopefully made them more mindful that if they are going to cut into, poison, mutilate and kill animals in the name of science, then the least the experimenters can do is abide by the law.

To be notified when I have posted another article, please click "Subscribe to Email" below.