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Abuse against monkey reported at MIT, animal rights group says

 

Abuse against monkey reported at MIT, animal rights group says

From Travis Anderson, BostonGlobe.com, November 20, 2024

An animal rights group said Wednesday it has obtained a memo from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology indicating that a researcher “mishandled a primate so severely” that the person was permanently barred from working with monkeys at a campus lab.

The Ohio-based Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!, or SAEN, said in a statement that the August document shows “an anonymous whistleblower told MIT administration that a researcher had abused a non-human primate with ‘rough and inappropriate handling.’”

The group said it had also received reports from the federal government under the Freedom of Information Act that show “a multi-year history of primate abuse.”

“MIT must be fully investigated and prosecuted,” the group’s executive director, Michael A. Budkie, wrote in a letter to the USDA in October. “A case must be opened with the Investigative and Enforcement Services Division of the USDA.”

An MIT spokesperson said in a statement that the university “takes the safety and well-being of all animals in its care seriously” and that “immediate corrective action” was taken after the alleged mistreatment.

“Among several steps taken, MIT’s onsite veterinary staff promptly provided care for the animal, and access to the facility was suspended for the research scientist involved; the individual has not worked with animals at MIT since the incident, and the macaque has fully recovered,” the university said.

School officials reported the incident to the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare and the USDA, “which both reviewed and indicated their satisfaction with MIT’s response prior to receipt of the letter from SAEN,” the university said.

In a brief statement, the USDA said it takes its enforcement duties under the Animal Welfare Act seriously.

“We are aware of this situation and are following standard response protocols,” the agency said.

The federal reports the animal rights group obtained do not name the researcher who allegedly mistreated the monkey or provide information about the research being conducted.

An Aug. 30 letter to the National Institutes of Health from Ian Waitz, MIT’s vice president for research, said an anonymous whistleblower in February “reported rough and inappropriate handling of a rhesus monkey” by a research scientist.

The next day, veterinarians noted the primate had a “minor lip wound” consistent with rough handling, and the researcher later voluntarily agreed to stop working with monkeys pending a review, Waitz wrote.

In March, a university committee on animal care determined that “the protection of non-human primate subjects warranted the permanent suspension of the research investigator’s ability to work with these subjects.”

Waitz said the study’s principal investigator informed the committee in July that a plan had been developed to finish the research without the suspended scientist.

The Cambridge institution is “committed to protecting the welfare of animals used in research,” Waitz wrote.

But additional reports from the USDA, which the animal rights group also released Wednesday, cited earlier primate welfare problems at MIT.

An inspection report dated Sept. 27, 2022, said a monkey was injured in December 2021 “during a handling incident” with two lab workers. A veterinarian later observed “bruising around both eyes with scleral hemorrhages,” along with mouth bruising, the report said.

“At the time of the incident, laboratory staff was moving the macaque [a type of monkey] to a chair using a collar,” the report said. “According to the laboratory personnel, the macaque became agitated in his chair. The macaque threw his weight against his collar which created pressure against his chained collar for an extended period.”

The investigation determined that “laboratory staff did not know how to handle the macaque during the incident. Also, the laboratory staff did not recognize the macaque’s injuries.”

The university addressed the lapse by retraining lab personnel and providing individual training for the staffers involved, the report said.

A USDA inspection on Dec. 16, 2022, identified issues with another primate that was restrained in a chair from 1:50 p.m. on Sept. 18 of that year until 8:30 the next morning.

Another report from August 2023 said a monkey was prescribed antibiotics to be given twice daily following a surgical procedure. The doses were supposed to be given 12 hours apart, but after the money received one, it didn’t receive the second for about 20 more hours, the report said.

Earlier, on May 18, 2023, a staffer erroneously altered a primate chair before securing a monkey in it, allowing the animal to temporarily escape and sustain both hyperthermia and skin injuries.

All those incidents were corrected, the reports said. 

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