Lab monkeys 'cooked alive'

Relevant offers

Americas

Grisly well find linked to 'Speed Freak Killers' 17 to hospital after hotel chemical spill Birth induced so dying dad could hold daughter 5.5 quake strikes northern California Murder trial over 2003 honeymoon diving death Obama's election-year budget to target rich Santorum takes aim at Romney The different states of America Pilot attacked on Brazilian airliner Uzbek admits plot to kill Obama

Workers at a US research lab were checking on a primate room when they came across a ghastly sight - 30 dead monkeys were essentially cooked alive after someone left the heater on and two others had to be euthanised.

At a lab run by the same company, a monkey died last year after it was sent through an automatic cage washer. The temperatures were so scalding the monkey never had a chance.

The two cases have led to calls for greater oversight and enforcement of the animal research industry after an alarmingly high number of deaths in recent years.

Critics say fines for violations at animal research labs are so puny that they do nothing to deter violations.

The lab where the monkeys died in Nevada was fined a mere $US14,000 (NZ$19,596) for the two incidents, according to records from the US Department of Agriculture.

"The penalties have given them virtually no motivation whatsoever to cease violating the law," said Michael Budkie, the executive director of the Ohio-based Stop Animal Exploitation Now.

"If they are literally killing animals through negligence, something is wrong with the system."

The group asked US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack last month for an independent investigation into animal deaths at research labs.

Agriculture Department records show there were 97 negligent animal deaths at research facilities in the US over the last two years, a figure that does not include lab mice and rats.

One of the biggest violators was Charles River Laboratories, where the 33 monkeys died at facilities in Reno in 2008 and Sparks in 2009.

The Massachusetts-based company is one of the world's largest suppliers of clinical and laboratory research services to pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

It also is a leading importer of research animals and breeds some of its own animals for medical research. Its researchers in Nevada are working to find a cure for cancer, new flu vaccines and better ways to treat obesity.

- AP