Harvard Cited For Yet Another Animal Welfare Violation

Harvard's Primate Research Center was cited for two animal handling incidents by the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- for the fracture of a marmoset's leg and the incorrect dosing of a primate -- following a complaint by the animal welfare group Stop Animal Exploitation Now (SAEN).

The original incidents occurred in 2012 at a primate research center in Southborough, Massachusetts. After SAEN filed a Freedom of Information Act and obtained university records from the National Institutes of Health's Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, the organization used the public information to file a complaint with the USDA in January 2014.

"Harvard deserves to be fined again," said Michael Budkie, executive director of SAEN, in a release. "Primate Center staff still hasn't figured out how to handle monkeys without causing bone fractures."

Harvard joins the University of California (Davis), University of Washington (Seattle), and the University of Houston -- all of which have recently been cited for animal deaths and injuries. Just last week, SAEN filed a federal complaint against Yale, alleging that 33 animal deaths occurred due to negligence in the university's research labs. And this isn't Harvard's first time, either -- the university was fined over $24,000 for 11 violations of the Animal Welfare Act in 2013.

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