University of Pennsylvania
USDA inspection reports from 6/20/02 indicate
violations in the area of environmental enhancement for primates. Only
two of 19 baboons are socially housed when the cages and protocols could
clearly allow social housing. Seven of the seventeen cynomolgous monkeys
are still not socially housed. Several primates do not have perches, and
other more complex enrichment devices have not been used in months, even
though the university apparently has them.
Several examples are illustrative: “Two single housed
rhesus in IHGT are exhibiting stereotypic behaviors but are receiving no
additional special enrichment. These are rhesus 94B106 who is stress
pacing and AC3H who is very aggressive and exhibiting saluting
behaviors.”
Inspection reports for May 16, 2003 discuss surgical
procedures on several primates where post-operative analgesics were not
used, despite provisions for the use of these drugs in the research
protocol. In the Richards Building, animal facility, room 310, four
primates are housed individually in cages that are too small for their
needs.
There are multiple violations of environmental
enhancement requirements. In the Richards Building three African Green
Monkeys did not have so much as a perch in their cages. In room 309 of
the same building four primates did not have perches. Five more primates
in this building are not receiving adequate enhancement (lack of
perches, swings, or devices improperly installed). Four more primates in
this building are individually housed without even being able to see
another primate. Three more primates that undergo “chair procedures”
(are confined to primate restraint chairs) receive no special
considerations to compensate for their specialized confinement.
As of May 15, 2003 the Nonhuman Primate Environmental
Enrichment Plan has not been updated since 1997. Numerous research
protocols are listed with various deficiencies. Many of these protocols
are listed by number only and it is impossible to determine if they
impact primates in any way.
