Feds—Demand Refund From UCSF Abusers

Published October 24, 2012 by PETA Staff. Last Updated August 8, 2017.

2 min read

PETA is asking the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to take back money awarded to the University of California–San Francisco (UCSF) for cruel experiments on monkeys in which federal animal welfare laws were repeatedly violated.

Lack of Care for Animals—and the Law

In 2011, federal inspectors cited UCSF for two violations of animal welfare laws over the school’s abuse of a monkey named Petra, who is pictured below:

Photo: PETA via USDA
Petra

UCSF was cited for continuing to torment Petra in a cruel brain experiment for nearly two years despite her deteriorating health and for failing to remove surgically implanted hardware from Petra’s skull, as the experimenters were required to do.

Internal UCSF records obtained by PETA reveal that Petra developed a terrible bacterial infection in the wound where her head was cut open. She rapidly began to lose weight, circled endlessly in her cage, and ripped out her own hair—a common behavior in primates imprisoned in laboratories. Primates are highly social animals, but in laboratories, they are often isolated in small stainless-steel cages as Petra was. As a result, they suffer from severe depression and boredom.

UCSF Pockets Money, but Petra Pays the Price

NIH policy prohibits spending grant money on experiments that violate federal animal welfare laws. Yet NIH awarded UCSF more than $2.1 million just during the period when Petra was abused, so PETA is urging NIH to demand the return of these funds. UCSF is no stranger to violating federal animal welfare laws. In 2005, UCSF paid more than $90,000 for dozens of violations of the Animal Welfare Act, which is one of the largest fines ever paid by an animal laboratory.

What You Can Do

Please contact the NIH and ask that they demand UCSF repay funds awarded during the period when experimenters violated the law by abusing Petra. Are animals like Petra suffering in your school’s laboratories? Help save animals from misery and death in experiments by urging your alma mater to stop experimenting on animals.