A monkey allowed to starve to death was just one of the complaints noted in a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report on the UW National Primate Research Center in September.
The primate, a 3-and-a-half-year-old pig-tailed macaque, “had been found dead due to malnutrition resulting in a loss of 25 percent of its body weight,” the report said. The death occurred last April.
This incident can be traced to a failure to weigh the animal at regular intervals. The facility requires that primates be weighed at least monthly, but in this case, the macaque hadn’t been weighed for about two months prior to its death, according to the report.
The report indicated that the facility has instituted a stricter mechanism of ensuring that animals are weighed regularly.
In addition to the macaque, the USDA took issue with the unsanitary conditions of the animals’ food storage and with the discovery of expired and unlabeled drugs in the facility. They also found two baboons enclosed in a cage that did not allow them to sit upright, due to 2-inch-high implants in their heads.
An animal-rights group, Stop Animal Exploitation Now, is continuing to monitor the UW lab for further potential oversight. Look in The Daily next week for continued coverage of this issue and the Primate Research Center.
Reach reporter Molly Rosbach at
news@dailyuw.com.
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