WHISTLEBLOWER CHARGES LOUISIANA CHIMP LAB WITH CRUELTY
20-Year Research Veteran Files Lawsuit Alleging Illegal Retaliation, Numerous Animal Welfare and Employee Safety Violations

New Iberia, LA - A 20-year animal research veteran has filed a lawsuit against the New Iberia Research Center (NIRC) – the world’s largest chimpanzee lab with over 6,000 chimps and monkeys – asserting illegal retaliation from NIRC after she blew the whistle on alleged animal welfare and employee safety violations, In Defense of Animals (IDA) announced today. 

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Narriman Fakier by attorney L. Clayton Burgess (337-234-7573), asserts numerous violations of federal animal welfare laws as well as potential criminal animal cruelty. The suit alleges that NIRC fired Ms. Fakier for whistleblowing, thus depriving her of her free speech rights (a copy of the suit is available at http://newiberia.vivisectioninfo.org ).

The suit states that Ms. Fakier was fired after protesting a plan to place ten toddler chimpanzees in isolation while they were experimented upon. She also objected to the use of a chimpanzee who had never recovered from prior research in a new study that ended up killing him, and raised questions about the deaths of monkeys from exposure due to insufficient heating in their outdoor enclosures. Ms. Fakier was shocked when chimpanzees were deliberately burned with a cigarette lighter and scalded with hot water. According to the suit, NIRC Director Thomas J. Rowell, DVM told Ms. Fakier that if she didn’t like the way NIRC operated, she should quit. 

“These allegations of reprehensible cruelty are shocking but unfortunately not a surprise,” said IDA president Elliot Katz, DVM. “Negligence, abuse and profound suffering seem to be inherent in the secretive world of federally funded chimpanzee research.”

Katz recalled the ten-year controversy over the federally supported Coulston Foundation in New Mexico, in which dozens of chimpanzees died in a lab that was formally charged four times by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for rampant Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations. He also pointed to the pending criminal animal cruelty charges against Charles River Laboratories, the federal contractor operating the Alamogordo Primate Facility (APF), a chimpanzee lab in New Mexico owned by the National Institutes of Health (see http://NIHchimpcruelty.com ). NIRC Director Thomas J. Rowell also sits on the advisory committee that oversees Charles River’s operation of the APF. 

Fakier’s suit also alleges that NIRC violated the whistleblower protection provision of the AWA. According to the lawsuit, the USDA, which enforces the AWA, has opened an official investigation into Ms. Fakier’s claims. IDA said that it will press the USDA for a full investigation of the matter, and reiterated its call for a permanent ban on chimpanzee experimentation.

“We applaud Ms. Fakier’s courage in exposing the cruelty of chimpanzee research,” Katz concluded.