The male macaque died after a chain attached to a foraging board that holds food monkeys can obtain themselves got wrapped around HIS head. The monkey’s social partner had to be sedated after witnessing the death.
ASIA FIELDS: ‘The federal government has issued a citation against the University of Washington after the death of a research monkey that was accidentally strangled in April. Animal rights activists aren’t satisfied and want the school to be fined. A male pigtail macaque died after a chain it pulled through the bars of its cage got wrapped around its head, the university said in a report to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in May. The chain was attached to a foraging board that holds food monkeys can obtain themselves, which was not installed properly, and the monkey’s social partner had to be sedated after witnessing the death, the university said.
The incident marked the third primate death since February 2016 at the UW lab, USDA spokesman Andre Bell said in an email. The lab conducts studies related to human health and neuroscience on hundreds of monkeys in a newly-built $142 million underground facility. The “critical citation” issued by the Department of Agriculture is the university’s fourth since the start of 2016, drawing sharp criticism from organizations like Stop Animal Exploitation Now (SAEN), a group that focuses on the treatment of research animals…
“It is absurd that this facility continues to kill animals and has not been penalized in a more meaningful manner,” SAEN spokesman Michael Budkie said in a Dec. 15 letter asking USDA to fine the school. His organization monitors eight primate-research facilities around the country, including the one at UW… UW was fined nearly $11,000 for the death of a male macaque due to starvation in 2009. Bell declined to comment on whether USDA is considering a future fine for the most recent incident’. SOURCE…
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