USDA's Primate Policy is Scuttled by Research Industry

The typical caging system for laboratory primates is inhumane. Viktor Reinhardt/AWI

Most primates used for experimentation are kept in solitary confinement in small, bare cages. This deplorable situation has continued despite a requirement in the 1985 amendments to the Animal Welfare Act for a "physical environment adequate to promote the psychological well-being of primates." Nearly 17 years have passed, however, research facilities still fail to comply with this legal mandate.

In 1991 the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) finalized regulations for enforcement of the law which state that primate facilities must develop environmental enhancement plans "in accordance with currently accepted professional standards." This vague language left USDA inspectors and the facilities they inspect in the dark about what must really be done for captive primates. The consequences have been weak enforcement by USDA and a minimalist approach to primate care by many facilities.

In 1996, acknowledging some of these problems, USDA developed a "Policy on Psychological Well-Being of Nonhuman Primates" based on an exhaustive review of the professional literature and feedback from veterinarians, primatologists and USDA inspectors. The draft was scrutinized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and requested modifications were made. The Draft Policy was published in the Federal Register on July 15, 1999, and after incorporating still further changes based on public and agency comments received, USDA again submitted the document to OMB.

As the policy neared completion, NIH, pressured by the research industry, raised numerous unwarranted objections. Like plugging a hole in a dam with one's left hand while hammering a new hole with one's right, NIH has persistently faulted some aspect of the policy to prevent its implementation. Now, the industry objective seems complete; the Policy is dead and with it the promise it held for improving the conditions for primates used in experimentation. The dam has burst.