Southborough Primate Center Fined For Mistreatment
Federal regulators fined Harvard Medical School $24,036 last week for repeated animal welfare violations at its New England Primate Research Center in Southborough.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture fine covers 11 violations between February 2011 and July 2012, including the deaths of four monkeys. The deaths all occurred at the Southborough lab and stemmed from overdosing a monkey with antiseptic, depriving a monkey of water and strangulation from a toy in the monkey’s cage, according to regulators.
Harvard said it found the fine “appropriate.”
“The leadership of the School cares deeply about upholding exemplary standards of care and attributes these outcomes to the excellent work of those members of our community who took aggressive action to institute rigorous quality improvements that benefit animal safety and welfare,” it said in a statement.
Harvard announced in April that it would close the Southborough center over the next two years for financial reasons. The school will continue to operate its much smaller animal facility in Boston.
Harvard could have been fined as much as $110,000 for the violations.
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