For Rapid Launch:
January 19, 2024
Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382
Olympia, Wash. – State representatives have simply launched a landmark invoice that might require transparency on the publicly funded College of Washington (UW) Washington Nationwide Primate Analysis Middle (WaNPRC), which has acquired tons of of tens of millions of tax {dollars} previously 10 years alone.
The Publicly funded Analysis Involving Monkeys wants Accountability, Transparency, and Engagement (PRIMATE) Act, HB 2304, would require that the WaNPRC publish information yearly on the quantity and species of primates in its amenities, how they’re utilized in experimentation, accidents and deaths, unintended infections and sicknesses, violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act, public funding acquired, and the composition of oversight committees and boards.
The invoice, which PETA helps, was launched within the Washington State Home of Representatives final week by Reps. Gerry Pollet and Julia Reed and 7 cosponsors, and the Senate’s companion invoice, SB 6221, was launched by Sen. Jesse Salomon and cosponsors Sens. Derek Stanford, Patty Kuderer, T’wina Nobles, and Marko Liias. Final yr, the same invoice was handed in Oregon requiring transparency by the Oregon Nationwide Primate Analysis Middle at Oregon Well being & Science College. Each the Oregon and Washington primate facilities have lengthy histories of animal welfare violations.
“This very affordable laws merely requires that the publicly funded primate middle share crucial details about the place the monkeys come from and what occurs to them,” says PETA primate scientist Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel. “Monkeys on the primate middle have died from hunger, dehydration, veterinary error, and unintended ailments—and taxpayers have the fitting to know what their cash is funding.”
A monkey caged on the WaNPRC. Picture obtained by PETA by way of the Washington State Public Information Act
The primate middle is presently below investigation by the Washington State Division of Well being for the loss of life of a monkey throughout a botched process. UW has violated federal animal welfare legal guidelines and laws dozens of occasions, together with by permitting a monkey’s strangulation loss of life. Veterinary errors have precipitated deaths of monkeys on the primate middle, and harmful ailments transmissible to people have contaminated monkeys on the college’s breeding facility. In 2022, a decide ordered UW to pay greater than $540,000 in penalties, charges, and curiosity for destroying information associated to the WaNPRC’s experiments on monkeys and for withholding information concerning monetary and management crises and animal deaths.
PETA—whose motto reads, partially, that “animals should not ours to experiment on”—factors out that Each Animal Is Somebody and affords free Empathy Kits for individuals who want a lesson in kindness. For extra info, please go to PETA.org or observe the group on X (previously Twitter), Fb, or Instagram.
