32 primates die in heating accident at Sparks, Nevada facility

Statement from Charles River Labs:

On May 28, 2008, a series of human errors led to a heating issue, which resulted in the death of 32 primates at the Sparks facility. This was an isolated incident that occurred in a single room at our quarantine facility and no other primates were affected. The death of these primates is a terrible and unfortunate tragedy. We take this issue very seriously and immediately notified the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In addition we proactively self-reported this incident to, and recently met with, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to review the preventive measures that were put in place. We are continuing to work with the USDA on this incident.

Full Story here:
Primates Heated to Death

The Species involved is a type of Macaque, sometimes known as the Cynomolgus monkey or Crab Eating Macaque.

AP is also picking up on this. It's sounding like even though there were many safeguards in place, these primates were heated to death, due to human error.

This story broke just recently due to some Charles River Labs employees having concerns over the treatment of animals at the facility.

the employees contacted a local animal rights outreach group, who then contacted PETA.

alleging that 32 monkeys have been literally cooked to death in a heating system failure.

PETA's response

A little about Charles River Labs the "General Motors" of the laboratory animal industry.
en.wikipedia.org...





[edit on 7-8-2008 by spacedoubt]

Absolute sick! They should give just as much attention to these guys as they do to humans...imagine the headline said people...i think more people would be responding.... These people should be trialed for negligence imo...

This was an animal testing laboratory?

In that case, it sounds horrible but they are probably better off dead. The experiments these intelligent creatures have to go through are absolutely horrible

reply to post by mnmcandiez


Yes, there are two of these facilities in the area.
These particular animals were in Quarantine, and hadn't been "put to work" yet.

It bugs me that we still do this. Some say that animal testing is still needed.
I guess in some cases it is. But if your going to do this, the animals need to be treated with as much respect as possible.

Macaques are what I would describe as a high level primate. They are very successful in many parts of the world due to their adaptability.

Disheartening.

There needs to be more legislation in this area.

bite me all of you