Seattle Press on Line - Animal Rights Advocates Demand UW Fire Primate Research Center Head Vet

Animal Rights Advocates Demand UW Fire Primate Research Center Head Vet

By Laurel Holliday

May 09, 2002 -- "CanKelley.com" read a banner stretched across the walkway over NE Pacific Street on April 26, the annual "open house" day at the University of Washington's Medical Center. The banner and the demonstrators who accompanied it are part of a rapidly growing campaign, supported by the Northwest Animal Rights Network, to persuade UW to fire Regional Primate Center head veterinarian, Stephen T. Kelley.

What's Kelley done to anger so many people and cause over 400 of them to sign an online petition demanding his removal? It's not so much what he's doing here and now to the primates in his care--the public is allowed to know absolutely nothing at all about that--it's the fact that there was enough evidence of his misuse of animals while he was head vet at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center (ORPRC) that two-thirds of his staff filed a formal complaint against him with the Center's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). The committee conducted an investigation and placed Kelley on administrative leave, which eventually lead to his resignation.

A year later, despite ample testimony (including a U.S. Department of Agriculture report) and videotaped evidence of the inhumane treatment Kelley condoned at ORPRC, the University of Washington hired him to head up the veterinary staff at the Regional Primate Center here.

Biomedical research facilities are cloaked in so much secrecy that it is extremely rare for anyone outside the animal research industry to get a glimpse of what goes on in them. It is only because Matt Rossell, a technician who worked at ORPRC for two years, secretly documented and videotaped the abuses he saw inside the facility that the public has any idea of the treatment the approximately 2,500 monkeys housed there received under Kelley's supervision. Rossell's descriptions and videos can be found at www.cankelley.com, along with the petition to rid the University of Washington of Stephen T. Kelley.

Laurel Holliday is a freelance writer and photographer in Seattle.

Reader Comments

Discuss this article in the forums!


Nelson Morris	Mar 05, 2003	Spokane	teacher
Yes... this may be a strange question, but I was wondering if you could tell me if the AIDS testing or disease they have been studying is known as S.A.I.D.S? I thought I had recalled seeing this term used in an older article. A few teachers here are wondering if you have heard of such a thing? Thank you--Nelson Morris


uberman	Nov 20, 2003	nw
simian acquired immune deficency syndrome. hi ross.


Jenna McDonald	Mar 18, 2004	Bellevue, Wa	Student
THE EMAIL LINK TO CANKELLY.COM DOESN'T WORK....???