The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has charged the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), with 60 violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act.

The charges leveled against UCSF, the fourth-largest recipient of research funds from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), paint a picture of immense animal suffering and sadistic cruelty on the part of university researchers:

• Performing surgery on a ewe and her fetus without anesthesia or analgesia 
• Leaving monkeys and lambs unmonitored after surgery, in one case letting a lamb froth at the mouth and gasp for breath 
• Forcing marmoset monkeys to breed continually and give birth while still nursing infants. One marmoset mother gave birth seven times to 14 babies in just over three years. Six of the babies died, and the mother lost 70 percent of her body weight over that period. 
• Depriving monkeys of water, resulting in severe weight loss 
• Performing a craniotomy on a monkey without pain relief 
• Subjecting at least one monkey to multiple injections of a brain-destroying chemical through the carotid artery

UCSF is under the impression that it is untouchable and that regardless of its abhorrent record of animal care, it has every right to continue receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds. Please help us get justice for the animals who suffered and died inside UCSF’s laboratories by taking the following actions:

1) Contact the U.S. Department of Agriculture to urge the prosecution of UCSF to the fullest extent of the law. Tell the agency that the university’s violations are so grave and long-standing as to warrant revoking UCSF’s USDA registration and its eligibility for federal research funds. In addition, any potential settlement with UCSF must include the university’s admission of guilt with regard to the charges.
 
The Honorable Ann M. Veneman
Secretary of Agriculture
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20250
202-720-3631
202-720-2166 (fax)
agsec@usda.gov