Wow. This is truly disturbing - I can't believe this is the first I'm hearing about this! More details please. Surely this equates to animal abuse.

--because the monkey starving to death - and the countless other animals who die due to laboratory conditions/diseases are really helping to make humankind better - why doesn't this make one question the validity of the data being collected on macaques living in ~2.5 cubic ft. Macaques are highly intelligent and social animals who would normally forage and travel in the wild (I don't care if they are bred in captivity and have never seen the 'outside' - primate researchers are still using them as if they are furry intelligent humans when it comes to arguing for their use in research). & the animal numbers keep rising - check out the 2005-2007 usda animal care reports - so long, 3Rs!
and all of this sacrifice so we can take the expensive shady pharmaceutical drugs with all the side affects on tv - really? and try to recreate 'models' of Parkinson's by overdosing monkeys with a drug similar to ecstasy to paralyze them - really? -and model behavioral disorders in monkeys - most of whom display abnormal behavior. -There is already microdosing in humans to test pharma drugs (and so the FDA needs to reform their guidelines) and human-based studies already being done for parkinson's, depression, etc. -is this really the best the UW and other research institutions can do for 'innovative' research? Please truly look at the cost/benefit of the research conducted without looking at the millions the UW receives in funding to help with overhead costs. I would challenge animal researchers to use their inherent scientific objectiveness to critically look at every animal study to determine if it is necessary - not just make blanket statements which will allow animal research to occur in essentially every area and allow the numbers to keep rising...

Animal testing is not vital to the development of treatment for disease, and in fact, may hinder it. Test results for animals do not necessarily match those for humans. The UW is behind the times regarding this issue. The UW loves to state that it is second only to John Hopkins in federal research dollars. John Hopkins has a Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing. http://caat.jhsph.edu/ UC Davis has the Center for Animal Alternatives. If the UW really wants to be on the cutting edge of research, it should establish a similar center here.

Evan, other news reports say that this animal was not being use in experiments. I am not sure what that means, but maybe it was being kept for other purposes or had not been used yet.

Does this change the facts? no.
Even if these animals are used for research (which I am not condoning)they should be well-cared for and the staff should be able to maintain management of them. When they were evaluated there were other violations they found on this visit besides with this animal.
They seem to have one of the largest facilities for research. They were switching staff at the time, and made excuses for not weighing the animals when they should have. I would say this is not a well-run facility and many more animals are probably wasted than people know....

I can smell the stench of hippies in this forum. Sure there’s absolutely no excuse for letting any animal die like this and the UW primate center in every sense dropped the ball. However, animal testing is a vital part of research to improve our lives as well as animals lives. How do you think veterinary medicine has advanced this far? Through animal research. It's a small sacrifice to make for the greater good.

I am not supporting the primate center in what they did at all. Research animals should have the best of care. This is just one case of poor care and of course UW will be reprimanded for it. Unfortunately we seem to only dwell on the sad cases of things like this. The huge majority of research facilities provide excellent care. Probably better than some owners who cannot provide basic care for their pets.

For example dogs used in research have supreme health care from the attending veterinarian which is much much more than I can say for a lot of dog owners. I know this because I have both worked at veterinary hospitals and in research with dogs.

Monkey's in the wild have to hunt for food and tons starve. At least in research settings they get all the food and medical care needed. (Except for this horrendous slip up from UW)

If you don't support animal research then please just kill yourself when you reach 30. Because you wouldn't live past it without animal research. If not kindly shut up.