The Ohio-based Stop Animal Exploitation Now believes primates at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center are being tortured unnecessarily. Michael Budkie, Executive Director of SAEN, says that includes water deprivation for as much as 16 hours a day, 5 days a week at the UW-Madison lab.
"Various devices including restraining bars and recording cylinders are literally bolted to their skulls."
Budkie claims from 2002-06, both UW-Madison and a private lab experimented on nearly 24,000 primates. The USDA claims not one of these tens of thousands of primates experienced any pain or distress, according to Budkie.
"Clearly this stretches the credibility of any thinking person beyond the breaking point."
He says federal oversight is weak because the labs essentially report on their own conduct.
Budkie says these cruel activities are not exclusive to Wisconsin but take place nationwide. He claims a culture of fear among laboratory workers, including possible reprimand and termination, is why more researchers don't blow the whistle on the activities.