FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, August 3, 2004
Contact: SAEN 513.575-5517
DAVIS - At a news conference here today, a national
research watchdog organization released a copy of an official complaint
against the University of California at Davis for conducting painful and
stressful experimentation on hundreds of primates apparently without
anesthesia - and lying to federal regulators about it.
Michael A. Budkie, A.H.T., Executive Director of
Cincinnati-based SAEN, provided copies of a complaint filed with the
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) and SAEN's investigative report on the
treatment of animals at the UC Davis Primate
Research Center.
"Officials at UC Davis have deliberately misled the
public and filed false and misleading reports. They lied to the USDA.
They broke a federal law," said Budkie.
"Primates have suffered severely at the hands of UC
Davis researchers, but the university won't even admit that they felt
any pain," said Budkie, noting that the primates have died from a wide
range of painful diseases, including pneumonia, encephalitis and
meningitis.
The university, if found guilty by the USDA, could be
fined several thousand dollars per violation, and hundreds of thousands
of dollars in total, Budkie said.
Budkie can be reached through Thursday at
916.996-9170. The complaint/ report are available at
http://www.saenonline.org/articles-rep-insideucd.html
.
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