On or about June of 2005, marmosets were not transferred during a routine cage change.  A Princeton employee named Philip (I do not remember his last name) was responsible for change cages.  This cage was taken to cage wash where another employee, Sylvanus Ashamole, put the cage into cage wash -- where temperatures reach 185 degrees.  The marmosets were scalded to death.  I do not know if the Princeton IACUC was informed or not. Vicki Eng was the attending veterinarian at the time. The marmosets were part of a study being conducted by Professor Gould.

About this same time the marmosets’ diet was changed by either the vet or other Princeton staff. As a result of this change, 2 or 3 marmosets eventually died of malnutrition due to lack of monitoring, which was common knowledge. This was all kept quiet.  I do not believe that anyone was informed about this incident.

On or about Oct 2004 one of the marmosets was noticed to be afflicted with "wasting" disease on a Sunday. Dr. Garret Field, temporary supervisor/temp veterinarian, was notified by the animal caretaker.  It was not until the next Sunday that the same caretaker was again assigned to marmosets. Immediately he noticed the animal curled up in a ball in a corner -- losing fur, unable to eat or drink because of the disease. The log book was checked to see if vet had even observed the animal.  The animal had not received adequate care. The next morning, Monday, the same caretaker went to the veterinarian and informed the vet of the marmoset’s condition.  The caretaker told the veterinarian to at least euthanize the poor animal to stop its suffering. The caretaker and the veterinarian went to room 1e24 where the marmoset was housed.  The animal was still curled up in the corner of the cage – dead. The vet had not examined the marmoset for 7 days despite the serious and eventually fatal illness of this animal. In the first half of 2006, Professor Gould terminated all of her marmoset studies.

From 2003 to the summer of 2006 Liz Gould was the only researcher using marmosets. In January of 2010, 10 marmosets (5 pairs) were brought to Princeton for Asif Ghazanfar.  The marmoset enclosures used by Ghazanfar were old and at this point only one staff person had actual experience with marmosets but this person only cared for them occasionally.  This meant that much of the staff was not experienced in marmoset care. Students fed and watered Gould’s marmosets on weekends and animal care staff cared for them during the week.  Eventually animal care staff provided weekend coverage as well, because students assigned for this would not always come in to feed them.

At Princeton all the monkeys had names: Bush, Calvin, Hobbes, McCartney, Lennon, Gobi, Poncho, and Franco just to name a few. At one time all monkeys were housed in "quad" cages which are about 84 inches high, 44 inches wide, and 60 inches deep. Four monkeys were in a quad.  Each one had a living area 42 x 22 x 60 inches. To my knowledge, this was their only home.  Once they arrived at Princeton, they never again saw daylight.  In 2009 some newer cages were ordered, but not enough to accommodate all the primates at Princeton.

About 4 years ago the partition between 2 of the monkeys was left unsecured. As a result one was so severely wounded by the other as to be almost totally emasculated. This primate was euthanized shortly after this injury. I believe their names were Bauer and Sir-Mix-a-Lot. 

Between 3 and 4 years ago Bush, a monkey in Professor Mike Graziano’s study was on a restricted water schedule which meant that the researcher was responsible for providing all water to the monkeys, unless animal care staff was instructed otherwise. On a 4-day Thanksgiving week end the researcher did not notify animal care that they were to give Bush water. It was Saturday before a staff member saw that Bush was not eating and saw Bush had no water.  There was another incident where a monkey was totally without water for 2 days because a cage change was performed on a Friday, but the water source was not connected until Monday, which again shows Princeton’s total failure to oversee animals. 

Professor Ghazanfar had a monkey named Poncho. He was the Houdini of monkeys and was constantly escaping.  Eventually Ghazanfar he gave Poncho to Professor Graziano where Poncho continued his escapes. It was reported to me by other animal care staff that at one point Poncho again escaped and was subdued by being clubbed with a hockey stick by a researcher and a student.  Poncho was euthanized shortly after this incident.

Four years ago Hugo, a member of care staff, went into room oe14 where Poncho was housed. Poncho was loose and attacked Hugo. If he hadn’t been wearing a full shield he would have lost his eyes.  

Monkeys were usually chaired and transported to the MRI machine at night to avoid anyone seeing them chaired.

The most brazen professor is Ghazanfar. He constantly refuses to cooperate with animal care staff, and also refuses to do things in compliance with regulations, or to cooperate with required inspections.

Regarding all of all the above incidents, I am not aware of any IACUC intervention.  I am also not aware of Princeton reporting these incidents to any regulatory agencies.

When an inspection was due we were ordered to go and check log books, etc. and fill in or correct anything as needed, after the fact. AND because a member of our staff had an outside connection it was always known EXACTLY what day and time the FDA and/or USDA would be at Princeton for inspections.

See PDF

See also:

• Pictures from "Anonymous" - September 2011
• Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

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