Federal complaint over 38 primates dead at Everett lab and breeding facility
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Northwest Animal Rights Network (NARN)
November 2016

This list of horrors highlights the importance of stopping research on primates and other animals, whose torment frequently produces no more useful medical information than tests that do not involve animals.

It also calls to mind the expanded animal research capabilities of the University of Washington’s new underground research lab, currently under construction.

How much will it cost this time? SNBL USA has been slapped on the wrist for primate mistreatment before, in 2006 for a paltry $36,852 and in 2009 for an even more paltry $12,937.

Now the USDA has filed a nine-page complaint detailing the deaths of 38 primates in the company’s lab and breeding facility in Everett, north of Seattle, The Seattle Times reports. The “gravity of the violations… is great,” according to the complaint.

Incidents include:

  • Strangulation of a primate after he or she became entangled in a cable.
  • The death of a 6-week old primate who died after escaping its enclosure and becoming trapped in a fence.
  • The deaths of 25 macaque monkeys who stopped in Houston on a trip from Asia to Everett and another town in Texas. Despite people observing that the animals were thirsty, sick and/or in physical distress, they were shipped on rather than given veterinary care.
  • The deaths of six macaques during liver biopsy procedures performed by personnel that were “inadequately trained.”

That list of horrors highlights the importance of stopping research on primates and other animals, whose torment frequently produces no more useful medical information than tests that do not involve animals.

It also calls to mind the expanded animal research capabilities of the University of Washington’s new underground research lab, currently under construction.

And just to put icing on that nightmare cake, check out the photo the paper ran below the primate death story. Zoos and animal testing: Really, really outdated and cruel.text

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