ACTION ALERT:
Contact:
Dr. Robert Gibbens
Director, Animal Welfare Operations, USDA-APHIS
[email protected]
[email protected]
Please levy the MAXIMUM FINE against University of Louisiana, Lafayette, for their blatant
disregard of the Animal Welfare Act when their negligence caused 3 monkeys
to die, possibly by heat stroke. Their behavior should NOT be tolerated and
MUST be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Animal rights group presses government to sanction, fine UL for monkeys' deaths
From Ken Stickney, TheAdvocate.com, January 27, 2021
An Ohio-based animal rights organization has accused a University of
Louisiana at Lafayette research facility of breaking federal law and
committing negligent acts that led to the deaths of three monkeys in August.
A university spokesman at the research center in New Iberia confirmed that
three rhesus macaques died there, apparently of heat stroke, on Aug. 5 but
said no laws were broken.
"The University of Louisiana at Lafayette and its staff is diligent in the
care it provides non-human primates at the New Iberia Research Center. The
center follows rules and guidelines established by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services and other agencies," the university said in an
issued statement.
The research center reported the deaths to federal authorities that month
and proposed changes in how monkeys would be handled going forward,
suggestions the federal government apparently accepted.
The incident, revealed this week by Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!, was filed
as an official federal complaint. The group’s co-founder and director,
Michael Budkie, contended in an issued statement that deaths “were the
result of sheer negligence, violating federal regulations for proper animal
handling.” SAEN and Budkie called for a U.S. Department of Agriculture
investigation and a maximum fine of $10,000 per infraction/per animal.
SAEN said UL Lafayette has a “history of breaking federal law” and has paid
fines of up to $100,000 in 2017. The university has paid three other federal
fines since 2007, SAEN said in its issued statement.
Budkie sent a letter of complaint Jan. 18 to Dr. Robert Gibbens, director of
Animal Welfare Operations for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Fort
Collins, Colorado. The letter said UL violated the Animal Welfare Act on
Aug. 5 when it put the monkeys in an area where temperatures were about
80-83 degrees at 8:30 a.m. and rose to 93 degrees when the animals were
found dead at 12:30 p.m.
“I am appalled that (UL Lafayette) negligence allowed three monkeys to die
unnecessarily," said Budkie. “It is absurd that … staff failed to take
precautions when acclimating new animals on a day where the temperature
reached 93 degrees Fahrenheit.”
In his Aug. 26 report to the U.S. Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, Dr.
Francois Villinger, director of the New Iberia Research Center, said the
rhesus macaques were previously housed in Alice, Texas, which has weather
similar to New Iberia’s. The average high temperature in August in Alice is
97.4 degrees.
Villinger said Wednesday that the monkeys, which were to be used for
breeding, had been at the facility in quarantine for about a month. He said
they were being acclimated into appropriate “colonies” and may have suffered
some stress because of socialization with the new monkeys.
His report said the monkeys had been observed that morning and appeared to
be doing well in the outdoor cage. The animals were not wounded, although he
said the hierarchy among monkeys in the colony might involve intimidation.
Villinger said UL presented plans to federal officials that included using
wading pools, sprinklers and “indoor-outdoor” housing that would permit the
animals to seek respite from the heat.
In its statement, the university said, "These preventive measures met the
requirements established in the Extreme Environmental Temperature Assessment
and Action Plan."
Although Budkie suggested UL Lafayette be fined, Villinger said the
government had moved away from punitive measures and works with research
facilities to develop and approve plans to improve the animals’
environments. Budkie, reached at his office, said Wednesday that that was no
longer the case, although it had been.
He said UL was guilty of violating federal law that says handling of lab
animals “shall be done as expeditiously and carefully as possible in a
manner that does not cause trauma, overheating, excessive cooling,
behavioral stress, physical harm, or unnecessary discomfort.”
SAEN was founded in 1996 to “force an end to the abuse of animals in
laboratories,” its website says. Its investigations have been launched and
actions have been taken against research universities across America,
including Southern Cal, Stanford, the University of Washington, Michigan
State, Toledo, Florida, South Florida, Emery, Johns Hopkins, Harvard and
Penn.
Its complaints and lawsuits have sought to protect monkeys, dogs, cats,
rabbits, ferrets, cows, sheep, guinea pigs and rats, among other animals.