PETA Files NIH Complaint Against Legacy Health After USDA’s Official Warning

For Immediate Release:
February 3, 2022

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding the Official Warning posted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) against Legacy Health for its critical violation of federal animal welfare regulations:

This warning won’t undo the trauma endured by the monkey who suffocated to death in Legacy Health’s laboratory, but it shows that the institute shouldn’t be trusted with even one more penny in taxpayer funding for experiments on animals—and PETA has filed a complaint with the National Institutes of Health, calling on the agency the agency to turn off the money spigot to the institute. Legacy Health failed to ensure adequate veterinary care for a monkey used in an experimental procedure. A valve on the anesthesia machine had been left closed, and the monkey experienced difficulty breathing and eventually endured what must have been an excruciating death from pressure-related trauma to the lungs.

This critical violation was so serious that USDA inspectors referred it to its Investigative and Enforcement Services (IES) arm, which issued the rare warning. Last year, IES issued only 58 official warnings—even though the USDA’s inspection arm filed thousands of inspection reports documenting violations.

Legacy Health must redirect its resources toward modern, non-animal research methods that will actually help humans, and we urge officials there to adopt PETA’s Research Modernization Deal.

For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.