Monkey Dead at Envigo After Being Left in Transport Cage; PETA Files Federal Complaint

For Immediate Release:
December 27, 2022

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA primate scientist Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel regarding the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) critical citation of Envigo for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act in an incident involving the death of a monkey, who was left in a transport cage for three days, at the company’s Texas facility. PETA has filed a complaint with the USDA, urging it to revoke Envigo’s animal dealer license.

Federal officials have tolerated Envigo’s despicable treatment of monkeys for far too long, and the company should immediately lose its animal dealer license. It’s already out of the beagle-breeding business because of staff negligence and incompetence, and now the feds have cited its Texas facility, which is owned by Inotiv, for the death of a monkey who was left in a transport crate for three days. The monkey’s lifeless body was discovered on November 21, just days after the U.S. Department of Justice indicted eight Cambodians, including two government officials, on charges of monkey-smuggling and passing off monkeys captured in their forest home as captive-bred. Envigo is believed to be one of two unindicted co-conspirators named in the indictment that were receiving the alleged smuggled monkeys.

Just last week, PETA revealed that during 2021 at least four monkeys imported from Cambodia were released from Inotiv’s Texas monkey quarantine facility despite being infected with and likely shedding Burkholderia pseudomallei—a deadly bacteria classified as a bioterrorism agent. Melioidosis, the infectious disease caused by the bacteria, can cause symptoms ranging from acute septicemia (blood poisoning) to chronic infection, resulting in death for 10% to 50% of infected humans. At least six monkeys imported into the U.S. in 2020 and 2021 were infected with the bacteria, and multiple monkeys in Texas have died.

Last year, the USDA cited Envigo for a critical violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act after a monkey died when a “squeeze panel” in a cage was dislodged and crushed the animal. Envigo’s sordid record of animal abuse and human endangerment must come to an end now.

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