Feds Cite Lovelace Biomedical After Monkey Found Alive in Bag in Refrigerator Intended for Dead Animals: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
July 9, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Vice President Dr. Alka Chandna regarding just-posted citations issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to Lovelace Biomedical Research Institute for two critical violations of the Animal Welfare Act. In one, a veterinarian leading a euthanasia training session injected a long-tailed macaque but failed to ensure the monkey died. Staff later found the monkey alive and sealed in a plastic bag in a refrigerator. In another, staff failed to lock a cage, allowing two adult long-tailed macaques to escape and fight with another monkey, resulting in serious injuries. One monkey lost two toes to amputation, another lost a finger and suffered severe face and hand wounds, and the third suffered an arm gash:

It’s more like Breaking Bad than science: A Lovelace veterinarian couldn’t even manage a dignified death for an abused animal and should never be allowed near another animal ever again, full stop. It’s unfathomable that someone entrusted to lead “training” sessions on how to euthanize failed to follow the simple procedure of confirming that a supposedly euthanized monkey was, in fact, dead, and then tossed the animal, sealed in a bag, into a refrigerator. PETA is urging the state veterinarian licensing board to conduct an immediate investigation and recommends the swift revocation of this vet’s license. We also urge the board to evaluate whether Lovelace Biomedical meets the standards required of clinical training sites for veterinary technician students. A facility that allows such inexcusable failures during supervised instruction should not be entrusted with the professional development of future veterinary personnel.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.