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Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!
S. A. E. N.
"Exposing the truth to wipe out animal experimentation"

Articles and Reports

Primate Experimentation in the US: The Facts We Weren’t Supposed to Know
By Michael A. Budkie, A.H.T.
513-575-5517 saen@saenonline.org  

Wake Forest University

Beginning in September 2000 Wake Forest is cited for having an inadequate environmental enhancement program for primates. In August of 2001 the plan is still listed as being inadequate, with many of the primates at the Bowman-Gray and Chestnut campuses not even having a perch to sit on. At this time the lab is also cited for using outdated drugs such as pentobarbital throughout the Bowman-Gray campus.

In February of 2002, 31 primates still do not even have perches to sit on. Many research protocols call for different kinds of enrichment items “. . . but no such items were observed in the animal cages.” In one protocol in which the primates are “head-capped” (have metallic devices attached – often by screws -- to their heads) the primates are socially isolated simply because of the headcaps. The inspector notes that headcapped primates at other institutions have been successfully housed socially. Some protocols called for primates to be housed socially, but on inspection they were still being housed individually. Food for the primates was also not being stored in such a way as to insure nutritional integrity.

On March 27, 2002 Wake Forest is again cited for violations of environmental enhancement for primates with 18 primates housed individually without justification. Later that year, on November 21, three primates still did not even have a perch to sit on. This brings the total of violations in this area to four in a three-year period without any meaningful enforcement actions taken by the USDA. We must begin to wonder if either Wake Forest or the USDA takes this regulation seriously.

Go on to:  Duke University
See Facility Reports for Wake Forest University, Winston Salem, NC
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