PETA Files NIH Complaint Against University of Louisiana–Lafayette After USDA’s Official Warning

For Immediate Release:
February 3, 2022

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Lafayette, La. –

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding the official warning posted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) against the University of Louisiana–Lafayette’s New Iberia Research Center for its violations of federal animal welfare regulations:

This warning won’t undo the trauma endured by monkeys, but it shows that the University of Louisiana–Lafayette shouldn’t be trusted with even one more penny in taxpayer funding for experiments on animals—and PETA has filed a complaint with the National Institutes of Health, calling on the agency to turn off the money spigot to UL-Lafayette. The university’s obscene neglect resulted in the slow and painful dehydration deaths of five infant rhesus macaques. The deaths—which left five mothers grieving—occurred over two days.

This fatal violation was so serious that USDA inspectors referred it to its Investigative and Enforcement Services (IES) arm, which issued the rare warning. Last year, IES issued only 58 official warnings—even though the USDA’s inspection arm filed thousands of inspection reports documenting violations.

UL-Lafayette should redirect its resources toward modern, non-animal research methodology that will actually help humans, and we urge officials there to adopt PETA’s Research Modernization Deal. This will benefit animals—who are sentient and deserve to live free from suffering inflicted by humans—and promote public health and safety, since monkeys can carry pathogens that pose a risk to humans.

For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.