Feds Issue Official Warning After Monkeys Suffer Amputations, Burst Organ, Death at Biomere: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
August 20, 2026

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Director of Primate Experimentation Campaigns Amy Meyer regarding the just-posted Official Warning issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) against Biomedical Research Models, Inc. (Biomere) for multiple violations of the Animal Welfare Act involving 16 monkeys. The violations include a monkey who had to be euthanized after staff misconfigured an anesthesia machine, causing his body to distend and lung to burst; six monkeys who suffered severe hand injuries during cage cleaning, requiring amputations; a monkey whose hand swelled after becoming trapped in an unlatched cage door; seven monkeys who endured spinal fluid draws without required pain relief; and a monkey whom staff deprived of food and sedated without explanation.

This rare, official warning—reserved for the most egregious violations—won’t restore the monkeys’ lives or limbs, but it confirms that Biomere does not comply with even the bare minimum animal welfare laws. Monkeys suffer from the moment they are confined in filthy breeding facilities abroad, through the stress of international transport to laboratories, and each day spent confined in cages, tormented in experiments, and ultimately killed. PETA urges the public to ask their members of Congress to pass the PRIMATE Act, which would end the importation of monkeys for use in pointless experiments at laboratories like Biomere.

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.