Dane County DA Allowed Again to Delay Justice for UW-Madison Primates

For Immediate Release:
April 5, 2023

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

A Wisconsin circuit court judge has set yet another deadline for the district attorney in Madison to decide whether he will finally act to save a long-suffering monkey from continued cruelty at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center. Please see the following statement from PETA.

Delayed justice is no justice at all for Cornelius and Princess, who have been shortchanged for years by the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Today, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Nia Trammell again extended the deadline for District Attorney Ismael Ozanne to provide the court with an update on when he might be able to make a charging decision for the parties responsible for these primates’ unmitigated suffering while being held at the university’s National Primate Research Center. Their plight was brought to light by PETA. Princess, who plucked herself bald out of frustration while caged, was killed by university employees after PETA alerted Ozanne to her mistreatment. Cornelius was held in solitary confinement in a cage too small for him to stand fully upright in, for years, in apparent violation of Wisconsin’s cruelty-to-animals law. PETA began asking Ozanne to prosecute the crimes against animals within the laboratory in June 2021, and after a year of no meaningful decisions by the district attorney, in June 2022 PETA petitioned the court to appoint a special prosecutor due to the his inaction. The court has now given Ozanne until May 12, an additional five weeks, to provide an update. In the meantime, Cornelius continues to suffer and desperately needs help from our legal system.

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