By The Vanguard Staff
DAVIS, CA – A national research watchdog disclosed in a statement this week the University of California, Davis, has been assessed “critical” violations for breaking federal law from regulators because of the deaths of at least two primates in UCD research programs.
SAEN—Stop Animal Exploitation Now—said in the statement university researchers are “bungling,” noting its complaint to the U.S. Dept of Agriculture, which oversees animal use, led to the government’s declaration that UCD broke the law.
“The USDA, the enforcers of the Animal Welfare Act, have investigated our complaint and issued a violation for the cooking death of the monkey. Not only did they issue a violation, they issued a critical violation, which is much more serious. Also, they issued an additional violation for a separate animal death,” said Michael Budkie, executive director of SAEN, a nonprofit based in Ohio that investigates activities in U.S. research laboratories
“The inspection (in October) which UC Davis failed is the first step towards an enforcement action by the USDA, essentially the beginning of a potential prosecution. This also means that the complaint which we filed was taken seriously, and has had an impact—it caused the inspection, and the critical violation to be issued,” added Budkie.
Budkie, in SAEN’s statement, said “the bungling laboratory admitted cooking a monkey to death in 130-degree heat,” quoting a “UCD internal report” that SAEN claims said a “monkey was left in a transport van for more than an hour with a forced air heater blowing 130-degree air directly on the confined animal. The monkey was later found comatose and eventually euthanized.”
Budkie added, “UCD negligence has caused unnecessary pain and death for two more primates. These serious violations should draw a major federal fine.”
