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Hold This Primate Lab Accountable For Neglecting Captive Monkeys
Final signature count: 1,734
1,734 signatures toward our 30,000 goal
Sponsor: The Animal Rescue Site
A monkey lost a limb. The lab stayed open. The USDA hasn't imposed a single financial penalty.
The Animal Welfare Act has been federal law since 1966. It sets minimum standards for the care of animals in research facilities and gives the USDA authority to investigate violations, issue citations, and impose financial penalties. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, that authority has gone largely unused—despite years of documented, repeated violations.
What Inspectors Found
Federal inspection reports reveal a pattern of deficiencies at the facility spanning multiple inspection cycles.1,2 Citations cover animal care practices, veterinary oversight, and staff protocols. The fact that similar categories appear across multiple rounds of inspection indicates that earlier citations did not produce lasting change.
The consequences are not administrative abstractions. In one of the most severe incidents on record at this facility, a monkey lost a limb due to failures in staff care protocols.3 The amputation was a direct result of systemic lapses—not a freak accident. PETA filed a formal complaint with the USDA calling for a federal investigation,3 and local media reported on the push for a formal inquiry.5 The facility continued to operate.
A Pattern That Extends Far Beyond One Lab
The UW-Madison primate center is not an outlier in a well-functioning system. It is a visible example of a widespread problem. A report from the National Anti-Vivisection Society found that Animal Welfare Act violations at U.S. research laboratories are common, and that enforcement actions rarely reflect the scale or frequency of what inspectors actually document.6 Financial penalties, when issued at all, tend to be too small to deter large, well-funded institutions from repeating the same conduct.
An independent audit reviewed by Faunalytics reached parallel conclusions: animals in U.S. research facilities routinely experience suffering that the current inspection and penalty structure is not built to prevent.7 The gap between what the law requires and what facilities actually face when they fall short allows repeat violations to accumulate without meaningful institutional disruption.
The Authority to Act Already Exists
USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is not limited to issuing citations. Under the Animal Welfare Act, APHIS can initiate formal enforcement proceedings and impose civil penalties scaled to the severity and repetition of violations.4 That escalation pathway was created precisely for situations like this one—years of federal findings, recurring deficiency categories, and no evidence that the current approach is working.
The animals held at this facility cannot file complaints. They cannot contact regulators. They depend entirely on the systems established to protect them. When those systems stop at citation and never reach real consequence, the law's minimum standards become a floor that facilities can fall through repeatedly.
The UW-Madison Wisconsin National Primate Research Center has had time to correct course. The record shows it has not. APHIS has the legal authority to act—it has simply chosen not to use it.
Sign the petition to tell the USDA APHIS Administrator to initiate formal enforcement action and impose financial penalties against the UW-Madison Wisconsin National Primate Research Center for its documented, repeated Animal Welfare Act violations.
