UW cited after another research monkey dies at lab
Dec 28, 2018, 2:22 PM
(KIRO 7)
(KIRO 7)
The federal government has cited the University of Washington after another research monkey died at its lab in April.
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The Seattle Times reports the pigtail macaque monkey is the third monkey to die at the facility since February 2016.
The United States Department of Agriculture said in the latest incident, the monkey was accidentally strangled by an improperly installed chain that it pulled through the bars of its cage.
The university says it reports all incidents and takes immediate action to prevent them from reoccurring. Incidents like this most recent one are self-reported by the lab to oversight bodies.
That lab specializes in studies on human health and neuroscience, housing hundreds of monkeys in its $142 million underground facility. The citation issued was of the “critical” variety, the fourth such citation the lab has drawn since 2016.
Inspection reports from the USDA in 2016, 2017, and 2018 found the lab to be compliant. Before that, it was fined $11,000 in 2009 for the death of a male macaque from starvation.
A 2017 report from the lab provided to the USDA said that the it used 667 monkeys in research last year, 300 of which were used in research “accompanying pain or distress to the animals, for which appropriate aesthetic, analgesic, or tranquilizing drugs were used.”
