PETA demands funding cuts after USDA report reveals deaths of 22 monkeys at South Carolina research facility
By Zach Rainey
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YEMASSEE, S.C. (WYFF) — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is demanding that a research facility in South Carolina face federal funding cuts after a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection report revealed the deaths of 22 monkeys.
According to the USDA inspection report, on the night of Nov. 22, 2024, a staff member at Alpha Genesis in Yemassee spotted animals down in a field cage. The employee immediately contacted additional personnel, who responded to the situation.
The USDA reports 32 of the 54 impacted cynomolgus monkeys survived.
According to the facility, the clinical presentation of the animals, lack of high temperatures or natural gas odors suggested the likely presence of carbon monoxide gas.
Additionally, necropsy and histopathology findings on the animals that died were consistent with exposure to carbon monoxide.
The deaths occurred just weeks after 43 rhesus macaque monkeys escaped from the research facility.
On Jan. 24, 2025, Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard confirmed that all 43 monkeys were safely recaptured. At the time, Westergaard said all monkeys appeared to be in good health.
On July 15, 2025, PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo released the following statement:
“Since Alpha Genesis cannot or will not maintain minimum standards of animal welfare established by law, it should lose its federal funding. PETA first exposed the inexcusable deaths of the 22 monkeys from whistleblower reports and again strongly urges the National Institutes of Health to immediately yank the $19 million in contracts Alpha Genesis currently enjoys. Twenty-two endangered long-tailed macaques died from carbon monoxide exposure, an entirely preventable mass death caused by sheer institutional failure. Greg Westergaard, the company’s CEO, has built his business on government contracts and animal suffering—and this catastrophe is just the latest in a long pattern of failure.”
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