Screw Left In Princeton Lab Monkey's Head Lead To His Death, PETA Claims

PRINCETON, NJ — A well-known animal rights group has asked federal and state officials to investigate the death of a lab monkey at Princeton University, claiming staff neglected to care for the animal after an experiment requiring cranial implants.

A federal inspection this spring found no evidence of noncompliance in the lab, but People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) claims that laboratory staff violated state animal cruelty statutes after the death of a rhesus macaque in 2020. PETA claims a failure to remove part of a screw from the monkey's head caused him physical pain and impairment, and that staff failed to provide him necessary veterinary care.

PETA's laboratory investigations department wrote a letter to Princeton Police on Oct. 11 requesting that the office "investigate and pursue enforcement action" against the storied university for "its apparent violations of New Jersey’s prohibitions against cruelty to animals."

According to an animal welfare complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the monkey had removed the hardware from his own head on June 13, 2019. Veterinarians immediately took him to surgery, where the complainant alleges they "knowingly" left hardware in the monkey's head — causing him to suffer from a brain abscess for months.

About eight months later, veterinarians "decided to perform an exploratory surgery" after a structural MRI showed an abscess, and did remove "a 2cm piece of ceramic screw" in the animal's temporal muscle. The monkey died of complications from surgery sometime after that, records show.

Amanda Schemkes, PETA’s laboratory oversight specialist, said Princeton's actions do not meet the standards for a “properly conducted scientific experiment” in her letter to Princeton Police. Schemkes said the veterinary staff failed to provide him with necessary veterinary care "to alleviate suffering and maintain death."

"This failure occurred both at the stage of not properly removing the 2-centimeter screw from the monkey’s head during the surgery in June 2019 and during the subsequent eight months in which the screw remained in his head, apparently without proper diagnosis of or care for the issue. Throughout this time leading up to his death, he would have been experiencing physical pain and impairment," she wrote.

The USDA said the university's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) contacted three outside veterinarians to review the laboratory's procedures, and then hired a new veterinarian who specializes in primates.

When asked for comment, a university official referred Patch to the university's announcement about the USDA investigation report from this spring.

"An unannounced focused inspection by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conducted at Princeton on April 20, 2023 found no noncompliant items," the university said on May 4. "Princeton University is committed to providing humane and responsible care for animals in research."

PETA uploaded a copy of Schemkes' letter to Princeton PD, and a copy of the USDA animal welfare complaint, to their website.