NEPRC staff immediately performed a necropsy on the primate and found that it was dead before entering the washer, according to a statement from the Medical School. An inspection report by the USDA confirmed their findings.

The report stated that personnel failed to comply with multiple procedures. It claimed that no one noticed that the animal was behaving abnormally during the morning health check nor that the primate was “still inside the dirty quad cage unit when it was put inside the mechanical cage washer.”

The incident prompted Elizabeth Goldentyer, the eastern regional director of the USDA, to send a warning letter to the Medical School in

October 2010.

In a statement released after the incident, the Medical School said that it would take “immediate actions” to ensure that NEPRC employees are “fully trained and strictly comply with protocols to help ensure the health, well being, and safety of all [non-human primates].”

ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL

In addition to the three primates, deaths at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the McLean Hospital Corporation, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences—all affiliated with Harvard but registered separately with the USDA—bring the total number of animal deaths in the past two years at Harvard-affiliated institutions to nine.

“Nine animal deaths is a significant number,” USDA spokesperson David Sacks wrote in an email.

Still, Sacks noted that “numbers don’t always give the clearest picture.”

In January 2009, a dog at Brigham and Women’s Hospital died due to an anesthesia overdose, according a USDA report.

That September, a USDA inspection team found a sheep at the hospital suffering from “anorexia, weight loss, labored breathing and signs of upper airway infection.” Notified of the sheep’s condition, hospital staff started treatment, but the sheep died the following day.

Afterward, the staff received training to prevent additional animal deaths.

But in the summer of 2010, two rabbits undergoing a short procedure at the facility died after receiving a dosage of anesthesia only approved by a veterinarian for “terminal procedures,” according a USDA report. All staff members received further training following the incident, the USDA said. There have been no additional deaths at the hospital.

Last summer, a goat under the care of FAS researchers died while recovering from an operation. A USDA report stated that researchers misread the dose for the goat’s anesthesia and administered four times the recommended amount. Personnel received additional training, and the report stated that no more incidents occurred.

“You begin to see a pattern of negligence and disregard for the animals,” said Michael Budkie, executive director of Stop Animal Exploitation Now, an organization that focuses on preventing abuse of laboratory animals. Budkie helped organize Sunday’s protest against Harvard’s research facilities.