Havard Gives Up Primate Torture

a victim of abuse

After two years of pressure from physicians, Harvard University announced in April that it will close its New England Primate Research Center. Numerous monkeys have been seriously injured or killed at the facility in recent in years. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine issued a report in 2011 in which it detailed violations of the Animal Welfare Act at ivy league universities. One horrendous incident uncovered by the Committee was the death of an endangered cotton top tamarin in a cage washed by a machine using near boiling water and caustic chemicals. Obviously this type of severe abuse and neglect has absolutely nothing to do with necessary medical research. After the report was released other stories of animal torture emerged. The Committee took this evidence of animal cruelty to the National Institute of Health's Laboratory Animal Welfare Office and asked that Harvard's lab practices be investigated.

The organization also sued Harvard for violating the Endangered Species Act in July, 2012 for negligently harming and killing cotton top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus). The new world monkey is a favorite target of animal researchers because it is small--an adult weighs about a pound--and is very social. They show characteristics of grammatical communication and emotional behavior such as spite and altruism. It is believed that 40,000 cotton tops were caught and exported from northwest Columbia for biomedical research. In 1976 CITES gave them the highest category of protection. All international trade was banned. Their lowland forest habitat is being destroyed by man, only about 5% of the forests remaining. About 6,000 individuals survive in the wild. Harvard responded to the endangered species compliant by claiming it would relocate its 170 tamarins in captivity to preserves or sanctuaries. The suit is still pending.

Princeton University ranked second worst in the Physicians Committee report for  non-human primate torture. When information about the death of a baby marmoset [photo] in a Princeton laboratory was requested under the Freedom of Information Act, a whistleblower's complaint was provided among the unredacted material. It said the dead newborn was confiscated and veterinarians were not allowed to examine the body. Other incidents of torture included the denial of water for prolonged periods and failure to treat post-surgical pain. Despite these and numerous other failures to properly care for the captives Princeton received $36 million in federal funding.