PETA Statement: Animal Welfare Violations at Wisconsin National Primate Research Center

For Immediate Release:
October 6, 2021

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding federal documents that reveal serious animal welfare violations at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s primate center.

While the U.S. Department of Agriculture properly cited the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center for two violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act that PETA had called to the agency’s attention, this slap on the wrist—documented in a just-posted federal inspection report—doesn’t prevent negligence and incompetence. According to other documents obtained by PETA through a Freedom of Information Act request, the primate center has given 1,000 times more of a medication to a monkey than was prescribed, overdosed a monkey on a test compound—resulting in death—failed to provide needed pain relief, failed to keep monkeys safe from other stressed monkeys, and allowed monkeys to escape from their enclosures. PETA reported all these issues, yet there are still no consequences. The primate center has harmed too many monkeys already and should lose both its license to conduct experiments and its federal funding.

For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.