U.S. research center mistreats chimps: Humane Society

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federally funded research center in Louisiana routinely mistreated chimpanzees and other primates, the Humane Society of the United States said on Wednesday after a nine-month undercover investigation.

The animal rights group said it filed a 108-page complaint to the U.S. Agriculture Department, accusing the New Iberia Research Center (NIRC) of at least 338 possible violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act, which sets minimum care and treatment standards for animals.

Under the law, the USDA is required to ensure specific levels of care are met for primates in research laboratories.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the animal welfare practices at the center will be fully investigated.

"If the allegations prove to be true, the American public can expect the perpetrators to be held fully accountable. I take the protection of animals very seriously, and will do my utmost to fully enforce the Animal Welfare Act," he said.

The Humane Society said one of its investigators secretly obtained video showing primates engaged in self-mutilation, dart guns and squeeze cages being used for sedation and infants removed from their mothers before tubes were inserted in their throats.

"Our investigation found an abject failure on NIRC's part to attend to the psychological well-being of primates as dictated by law, a lax USDA attitude about enforcing that law, and a knowing and gross violation of the federal government's pledge to stop breeding more chimpanzees for research," Wayne Pacelle, the society's president, said in a statement.

The investigator witnessed only 20 chimpanzees being used in active studies during the investigation. The research center has about 6,000 monkeys and 325 chimpanzees on over 100 acres, the Humane Society said.

Officials of the research center, which is part of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and has received millions of dollars in public funding, did not return calls seeking comment.

(Reporting by Christopher Doering; Editing by Paul Simao and Chris Wilson)