A mistreated laboratory monkey held in violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act is the reason why UC San Francisco should return federal money, according to animal-rights activists.
"A female rhesus macaque named Petra" was the subject of neurological tests from 2008 to 2010, according to the San Francisco Examiner. The monkey "suffered for months," however, when a surgical procedure failed to remove a "drug-injection apparatus from inside her head," the newspaper reported.
That means UCSF should return to the National Institute of Health the $2.1 million used in the study, the newspaper reported. That would be in accordance with the NIH's own standards and practices, according to the newspaper.
UCSF declined to say if it would return the money, the newspaper reported.
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The tests were part of research into Parkinson's disease, and led to a "human gene therapy clinical trial," UCSF said.
As for Petra, it's already much too late: the lab test monkey was euthanized by Jan. 5, 2012, after she was photographed picking at the surgical incision and removing her own fur, the newspaper reported.
She "had always been slated for euthanasia" following the tests, the newspaper reported.
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