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

Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, October 30, 2003
Contact:  Michael Budkie, SAEN 513/575-5517

Official Complaint Filed Against University of Wisconsin Over Deaths Of Primates In 'Painful' Experiments

Madison - A national research watchdog organization said today it has filed an "official complaint" against two universities - the University of Wisconsin and Harvard - for conducting painful/stressful experimentation on primates without anesthesia, and lying to federal regulators at the USDA about it.

"Primates are dying in the labs of the University of Wisconsin who are emaciated, have a total lack body fat, and have suffered from diseases like pneumonia, encephalitis or meningitis. These monkeys have suffered severely at the hands of UW researchers, but the UW won’t even admit that they have felt any pain," said Michael A. Budkie, A.H.T., Executive Director of SAEN. 

The complaint is the result of investigations performed to produce a national report on primate experimentation:  "The Primate Experimentation Scandal, 2003," which is being released this week by Cincinnati-based SAEN.

The report (available at www.all-creatures.org/saen/event-nplw-2003.html), is based on internal government documents, and reveals U.S. labs confine nearly 100,000 primates per year at an estimated cost to the federal government of more than one-half billion dollars ($530,000,000).

At Wisconsin, internal government and university documents confirm 109 primates at the UW were used in potentially painful/stressful experiments. Post mortem records indicate that another 29 primates died of severe chronic and/or traumatic conditions.

"Officials at the University of Wisconsin are performing highly invasive and painful/stressful experiments on primates and lying about it to the USDA," added Budkie.

"On one hand they say that the experiments are too invasive/painful to be performed on humans, and yet they also say that these same projects don't cause primates any pain or distress. You can't have it both ways," he said.

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