Here’s a letter we wrote to the Director of the National Institutes
of Health about the cruelty shown toward over 5700 primates (spider
monkeys, tamarins, marmosets, chimpanzees, baboons, macaque monkeys)
at the Southwest National Primate Research Center. Among these
horrible acts: starting an autopsy on a live baboon. The Southwest
Foundation for Biomedical Research (SWFBR) of San Antonio, Texas
receives a federal grant of approximately $54 million per year.
31 March 2008
Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, Director
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
9000 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20892
Ez26y@nih.gov
Dear Dr. Zerhouni:
We urge you to please take immediate action against the Southwest
Foundation for Biomedical Research for their egregious violations of the
Animal Welfare Act.
Such action would include the following:
1. Full repayment by SWFBR of the grant money spent during
noncompliance.
2. Prohibiting the offender from ever receiving another NIH grant.
3. Revoking SWFBR’s Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW)
accreditation.
4. Investigating SWFBR for further noncompliance with the Animal
Welfare Act during the entire funding period of the grant(s) in
question.
We look forward to your reply. You can contact me at the address in
this letter.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Frank L. Hoffman
Mary T. Hoffman
