URGENT NEWS CONFERENCE ADVISORY
Monday, March 26, 2012
Contact: Michael Budkie, SAEN www.saenonline.org, [email protected], (513) 575-5517

Attn: Daybook/Assignment Desk

ULL lab Named in Two Federal investigations of Chimp and Monkey Deaths; News Conference to Disclose Probes and Filing of Additional Complaint

LAFAYETTE/NEW IBERIA, LA. – A National Research Watchdog Organization, SAEN, has called a news conference for Tuesday March 27 at 10 a.m. to disclose details about two ongoing federal investigations which focus on primates linked to the University of Louisiana Lafayette’s New Iberia Research Center.

The investigation reports will be released at a NEWS CONFERENCE TUESDAY, March 27, at 10 a.m. at the Bayou Room of the Ramada Inn, Lafayette at 120 E. Kaliste Saloom Rd.

SAEN has obtained internal USDA records which reveal that a May 2011 chimpanzee death while en route to the New Iberia lab is the subject of one current federal investigation. The principals of this investigation are the Opelousas, LA, shipping firm Stone Oak Farm & Transports and the Bioqual company of Rockville, MD.

Additionally, the negligent deaths of three primates last year at the New Iberia Lab are the subject of a second ongoing federal investigation by the USDA, which follows the filing of an Official Complaint by SAEN.

SAEN has also contacted the USDA to request the investigation of a number of fatal traumatic injuries to primates which have occurred at the New Iberia facility.

“It is shocking that ULL/New Iberia is connected to two separate federal investigations,” said Michael A. Budkie, A.H.T., Executive Director, SAEN. “This lab should be severely punished for the deaths of all animals which were due to negligence.”

All records will be available at the Tuesday news conference.

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See also:

• University of Louisiana, (New Iberia) Lafayette, LA
• Letter of Complaint to USDA - 23 Mar 2012 - NIH Contract Reports - Clinical Incidents (PDFs) Report 1, Report 2, Report 3, Report 4, Report 5, Report 6, Report 7

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