Stop Animal Exploitation Now, an animal rights organization, wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack asking him to further investigate several animal research laboratories across the nation for alleged animal abuse, including those at UW-Madison.
In the letter, Michael Budkie, executive director of SAEN, cited examples of animal deaths at 18 institutions nationally.
According to Budkie, these deaths were because of those institutions' failure to follow animal care protocols.
He also said he believes the U.S. Department of Agriculture has not done enough to punish those institutions for the deaths that have occurred.
""It is clear that the current system does not involve penalties which are sufficient to act as deterrents to future violations,"" he said in the letter.
Budkie specifically cited UW-Madison and an incident on campus involving a primate death because of alleged negligence.
In December, the USDA issued UW-Madison 20 citations for sanitation, ventilation and enclosure violations.
The USDA, however, dismissed these violations in late January, but Budkie said he felt this second investigation was not thorough enough.
""These violations include incidents which caused extreme pain and suffering to the animals, and taken their lives,"" he said in the letter. ""But [USDA] enforcement actions have been utterly insufficient to bring the facility into compliance.""
—Kelsey Gunderson
