Blogging About Critters Since 2007

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

University of Washington Allows Primate to Starve to Death

I went to graduate school at the University of Washington here in Seattle. I've been hearing nightmare stories about the Primate Center for years. The ineptness and cruelty continues, but all in the name of "putting people first."

Eff that. This is why I avoid Games Night at some acquaintances.' They have a friend that works at this vile place.

From the student newspaper The Daily
.
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.

...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.

2 comments:

Andrew said...

Ana,

This is downright appalling. I certainly hope that centre receives stern punishment for their completely unacceptable and utterly unsatisfactory behavior.

Are there any forms of criminal penalties attached to the mistreatment of animals within these types of places?

Ana said...

There are USDA fines, but criminal penalties? No.

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