To this day, over a year later, those cleaning guidelines are not followed, enforced by management, or included in training new technicians. The only reason the Center had a psychological well-being program was because of a change in the language of that Animal Welfare Act in 1985. The only thing our program did, by design, was to meet that law on paper. Even so, I put my heart into trying to improve the abnormal behaviors of the research monkeys. These interventions did not work.
Current literature emphasize social housing.
Dr. Steven Kelley, our former Head Veterinarian, said it best in the Fall 1991 issue of Primate News, our internal newsletter. The scientists rarely ever have contact with the monkeys at the Primate Center. Instead the science is left to the animal technicians, who know nothing about the studies or what is in the needle they are injecting into the animal. Maybe that is why, In 1999, the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center had over 100 percent turnover. They lose people faster than they can hire them.