The director of the New Iberia Research Center said Thursday that he does not expect the facility to be fined for three recent incidents involving seven monkeys.
One monkey broke her own arm. Another sustained a mortal injury in what has been described as a 鈥渇reak accident.鈥 Five others escaped from an enclosure but remained in the room where the enclosure is kept.
鈥淓verything was corrected immediately,鈥 said Dr. Joe Simmons, NIRC director. The incidents were self-reported to the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
A USDA report, filed Aug. 6, 2013, after a routine inspection by the USDA鈥檚 Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, confirmed that the incidents were self-reported and corrective measures had already been taken. That report is posted online at nirc/about/admin.html.
On Jan. 19, 2013, 鈥渇ive capuchin monkeys removed the latch clip from their enclosure door and escaped,鈥 the report states.
Simmons said the monkeys left their enclosure but never left the room where it is located. To reach outdoors, the monkeys would have had to have opened and passed through three sets of doors in the building where they are kept.
The second incident occurred on March 29, 2013, and involved a female rhesus macaque who was housed with her infant. The report states that a 鈥渟queeze restraint mechanism鈥 was partially activated to allow a caretaker to record the infant鈥檚 temperature. The mother鈥檚 arm became entrapped between the squeeze mechanism and a closed enclosure door.
鈥淭he animal forcibly removed her arm and subsequently fractured it,鈥 according to the report. Simmons said the injury was detected the following day, when the primate鈥檚 injured arm began to swell. USDA inspectors saw the animal during the Aug. 6, 2013, routine inspection and confirmed that her arm had completely healed.
On July 2, 2013, a female rhesus macaque鈥檚 hand became caught in space between the bottom portion of a metal conduit and the corn crib portion of its enclosure. She was injured and subsequently died.
Simmons described it as an unusual accident that has occurred only once in 30 years. However, the NIRC developed a bracket intended to prevent another occurrence and had started installing the newly designed brackets on cages before the USDA鈥檚 inspection on Aug. 6, 2013.