USDA Issues Warning Letter to Oregon National Primate Research Center

PETA has filed complaints about this place for years, but it's the first warning they've actually generated.

In December, the United States Department of Agriculture issued a warning letter to the primate center for violations of the Animal Welfare Act, which regulates treatment of many commercial animals from pet kittens to laboratory guinea pigs. The warning cited three errors in veterinary care, including a serious 2007 incident where a pregnant monkey died when a researcher failed to notice she was having a troubled labor. The two other incidents involved a sponge being left in a monkey after surgery and a surgery performed on the wrong monkey.

The lab reported the incidents to the National Institutes of Health, said Jim Newman, a spokesman for Oregon Health & Science University, which runs the center. And the center added training and banned one researcher from animal contact in response.