ACTION ALERT:
Contact:
Dr. Robert Gibbens Director, Western Region, USDA
(970) 494-7478
[email protected]
[email protected]
SAMPLE MESSAGE:
Please LEVY a MAXIMUM FINE against University of California, Davis, for
their blatant disregard of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) when their
negligence killed seven infant primates. Their behavior must NOT be
tolerated and MUST be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Animal rights activists urge sanctions after deaths of seven baby primates garner media attention
From Andrea Esquetini, TheAggie.org, October 8, 2019
UC Davis Primate Center faces scrutiny this summer
The California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC) at UC Davis came
under fire again this summer after it was reported that seven baby monkeys
had died under its care in April of 2018. The center reported the deaths
when they happened, but the incidents were subjected to a more extensive
investigation by local media this summer.
Animal rights activist groups subsequently called for the university to be
fined — Stop Animal Exploitation Now! (SAEN) went as far as to say the
university was engaging in a “cover up.” SAEN, whose website is sponsored by
a religious foundation, has a history of filing federal complaints about
universities around the country for conducting animal research and aims to
stop the practice.
According to UC Davis spokesperson Andy Fell, SAEN finds out about incidents
by doing a public information search.
“They ‘announce’ them as if they were new,” Fell said. “These are things
we’ve already reported to the USDA or the NIH and taken steps to make sure
it doesn’t happen again.”
The US Department of Agriculture and National Institute of Health establish
the regulations and guidelines that must be followed by the CNPRC.
The center at UC Davis is one of seven National Primate Research Centers
around the country. Some of these centers, like those located at the
University of Washington and the University of Wisconsin have also received
attention from the same animal rights group. The University of Wisconsin
declined to comment on the “activities” of the animal rights group, saying
instead that the university “considers animal research an indispensable tool
for understanding complex living organisms.” The University of Washington
did not respond to requests for comment at the time of this article’s
publication.
One of the claims animal rights groups often make is that animal
experimentation is unnecessary. Research with monkeys is only conducted when
“questions cannot be answered in other ways,” according to the NPRC website.
Scientists use monkeys to study complicated issues such as chronic lung
disease, Alzheimer’s disease or reproductive problems because of the genetic
closeness of monkeys to humans.
Fell echoed this idea, explaining that a principle of animal research is to
only use it if there is no alternative.
“If you don’t have to use an animal for the experiment, don’t use an animal,
if you can use a cell culture, use a cell culture, if you can use a mouse
instead of a monkey, use a mouse, if you can use fewer animals use fewer
animals,” Fell said.
Animal research is conducted on rats and mice 95% of the time, according to
the Foundation for Biomedical Research. For an experiment to be conducted at
the CNPRC, it must be approved by the center’s Research Advisory Committee
and the UC Davis Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, which includes
“public non-affiliated members.”
When asked about why the center’s scientists are hard to reach, Fell
explained that “there have been occasions in the past where people have been
targeted by harassing emails or worse.”