USDA slaps Penn State Medical School with Official Warning for Primate Death; Watchdog Group Calls penalty a Slap on the Wrist

Press Release
From Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!
S. A. E. N.
"Exposing the truth to wipe out animal experimentation"


See PDF

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thurday, June 28, 2012
Contact: Michael Budkie, SAEN www.saenonline.org, [email protected], (513) 575-5517

Attn: News Desk

USDA slaps Penn State Medical School with Official Warning for Primate Death; Watchdog Group Calls penalty a “Slap on the Wrist”

Harrisburg/Hershey, PA – The USDA/APHIS has issued an official warning against the Penn State
University Medical School for the negligent death of a non-human primate.

The Official Warning issued this week is centered on an incident recounted in a USDA inspection report from March of 2011. The document reveals that an untrained research assistant killed an animal through negligence. The lab is cited for use of Unqualified Personnel in the federal report.

A spokesperson for the USDA has confirmed that the animal who died was a macaque monkey.

The inspection report contained additional citations issued against Penn State by the USDA for improper functioning of the Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee for the illegal performance of unapproved experiments on animals.

Following the initial USDA inspection Stop Animal Exploitation Now contacted Dr. Elizabeth
Goldentyre, Director of the Eastern Regional Office of the USDA, to request a meaningful penalty for Penn State. Labs can be fined as much as $10,000 per Animal Welfare Act violation.

“The Eastern Regional Office of the USDA has abdicated their responsibility to enforce the Animal
Welfare Act,” said Michael A. Budkie, A.H.T., Executive Director, SAEN. “At the very least Penn State should have been fined for negligently killing a macaque monkey. This Official Warning is nothing more than a slap on the wrist and effectively tells criminal labs that they will not be penalized even when their negligence kills an animal.”

All USDA documents are available upon request from SAEN.

-30-

See also:

Return to Press Releases


We welcome your comments and questions