More Amputations, Fights at Unsafe UC Davis Primate Center Prompt Federal Citations: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
August 24, 2026

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Chief Science Advisor for Primate Experimentation, Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel, regarding numerous citations issued against the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) for violations of the Animal Welfare Act at the school’s California National Primate Research Center. Among the violations, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a critical citation related to three incidents after a shard of PVC pipe was left lodged in a monkey’s cheek long enough to erode the surrounding tissue, a monkey’s finger was amputated after being trapped in a broken climbing structure, and a monkey apparently swallowed and excreted hardware left inside a cage. The citations also document repeated injuries caused by broken equipment, unsafe enclosures, careless handling, and a fight between two monkeys that required surgery for one after a screw fell from a cage divider:

The California National Primate Research Center needs to be shut down because, even when they’re not being experimented on, no monkey is safe there. Broken equipment, dangerous enclosures, careless handling, and wanton neglect cause amputations, injuries, and fights between stressed monkeys. UC Davis is either unwilling or unable to meet even the lowest federal animal welfare standards, and monkeys pay the price with their bodies and lives. UC Davis’ federal funds should go toward state-of-the-art, superior, non-animal research methods.

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.