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Reports Cheri Stevens Statement: California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC) Witnessed Animal Abuse On several occasions I witnessed a lack of concern for an animal’s
wellbeing by co-workers, and at times it was blatant abuse. Two specific
employees come to mind whose stories I will tell but their names will
remain anonymous for the purpose of this paper. Co-worker A was known for making trouble and harassing animals and
co-workers. Everything was a joke to this person and I remember being
frustrated working with him because of his lack of concern during
preventative heath round-ups. I witnessed him skin an animal's inner
thigh with an electric razor and show no concern for the matter. This
person brushed it off as if the blood and the pain the animal would feel
when they woke up was not a matter for concern. I had to tell them to
take the animal to therapeutics to receive the antibiotic ointment to
lessen the chance of infection because animal cages are only clean for
about 10 minutes after they’ve been hosed out creating the possibility
for infection. This led to a verbal confrontation in which I held my
ground to ensure that the animal was treated with the respect it
deserved. This person is also responsible for the animal that went missing and
supposedly went into the drain in the floor. I cannot speak specifically
to what went on for sure in that room. All I can say is that a thorough
search for the remains of the animal was done in the entire pipeline of
the CNPRC. They found syringes, needles, some trash, and various metal
objects, but not a single animal bone. I can also say that it is
unnatural for a primate to use burrowing as a form of escape, primates
are climbers. I don’t know what happened in the room that day, but I do
not believe the story I have been told. I have a difficult time
believing the juvenile primate was out of its cage by accident, knowing
that the crew this person worked on would purposely let animals loose in
the room so that they could catch them, for fun. The same person managed to train an animal to masturbate against its
own leg and arm on command with repeating “show me what you got.” This
employee did this on a regular basis and would show the new people
because he thought it was hilarious. Co-worker B was more of a physical abuser of the animals. On several
occasions I witnessed unnecessary roughness and extreme force being used
to manipulate an animal into the positions that were necessary for him
to complete intended procedures. A particular incident I can
specifically recall led me to report this abuse, and not for the first
time, to my supervisor. I was performing my daily husbandry tasks when
Co-worker B entered the room to move animals around for the purposes of
breeding. He went to a male's cage to remove the female who was hiding
behind the male. Co-worker B reached around the door and slapped the
primate right on his head, right in front of me. The animal was not
aggressive before or after the attack but for some reason this co-worker
felt it necessary to repeat the abusive action. Again the animal did not
react aggressively, rather stunned. This left me with a sinking feeling
in my chest and I reported it to my supervisor because this was not the
first time I had seen this employee behave this way. More than one time I witnessed him use extreme force and the squeeze
cage to put a primate into the position needed to perform an
experimental task. He would literally slam the back of the cage into the
front of the cage with the animal trapped in the middle. Many times he
was very aggressive in his verbal approach to animals causing them to
also behave aggressively and at the very least grimace in his presence.
Both of these employees were employed still at CNPRC at the time of
my resignation and I believe they are currently employed there. One of
them has their employment backed by the fact that he works directly for
his uncle. I witnessed this create a conflict of interest when dealing
with disciplinary actions needed to ensure that all employees are
behaving within the realm of respect for other employees and the animals
housed at the CNPRC. I have been asked if I witnessed animals being abused by researchers
and investigators. What I can say to that is, for the most part the
animals were tested behind doors. I had the opportunity to observe a few
tests being conducted and the researchers that I observed were very
caring towards the animals. It is my experience that animals will only
work when they want to and for who they want to. You have to cooperate
with an animal if you want it to cooperate with you. There was just one incident where I recall actually witnessing an
investigator harassing an animal. He was in an animal room that I was
responsible for and was shaking the cage of a male primate until he
became aggressive. They went back and forth like this for a minute until
I entered the room which startled the investigator. I reported the
incident to my supervisor. I can recall a physical description but not a
name of the investigator.
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