USA/PETA calls on USDA to investigate whistleblower's report on primate abuse at Vanderbilt

Leaked Memo Indicates That Monkeys’ Skulls Were Drilled Into While Animals Were Conscious

September 7, 2006

Contact: Debra Durham 757-622-7382

Nashville, Tenn. — PETA is urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to investigate a whistleblower complaint that experimenter Jeffrey D. Schall performed brain surgeries on macaque monkeys at Vanderbilt University without properly anesthetizing them. In addition to demanding that immediate disciplinary action be taken against Schall if he is found to have violated the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA), PETA has also written to the national Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare to demand that Schall’s federal funding be revoked.

PETA’s action comes after an anonymous whistleblower leaked a memo from Vanderbilt veterinarian Dr. Maggie McTighe in which she "reminded" university experimenters that monkeys subjected to invasive brain surgeries must be put under general anesthesia. Included with McTighe’s e-mail was a tip that read, "Until last month, Jeffrey D. Schall … performed craniotomies on unanesthetized, fully awake primates (macaques)."

Vanderbilt has run afoul of federal animal welfare laws in recent years....

Source: Leaked Memo Indicates That Monkeys’ Skulls Were Drilled Into While Animals Were Conscious
Author: PETA

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