Federal regulators fined Harvard Medical School $24,000 for repeated animal welfare violations at its research facility that resulted in the death of four monkeys since 2011, Reuters reported.
The fine, announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday, was issued after a lengthy investigation into the mistreatment of primates at Harvard's two animal research labs in Massachusetts, one of which the school said it plans to close.
The penalty covers 11 violations from February 2011 to July 2012, including several that noted that the laboratory personnel handling the animals were not sufficiently trained.
Most of the violations occurred at Harvard's New England Primate Research Center in Southborough, the Boston Globe reported.
In February 2011, one of the lab workers overdosed a monkey with anesthetic, causing it to die of kidney failure. In two other cases, the monkeys were euthanized after developing a serious case of dehydration from being deprived of water. The last death occurred when a chain attached to a toy in the monkey's cage strangled him, Reuters reported.
According to the Boston Globe, the fine Harvard Medical School received was unusually low. The USDA could have fined the school as much as $10,000 for each violation, bringing the total penalty to $110,000.
Harvard Medical School said it agreed to USDA's fines.
"The leadership of the School cares deeply about upholding exemplary standards of care and attributes these outcomes to the excellent work of those members of our community who took aggressive action to institute rigorous quality improvements that benefit animal safety and welfare," school officials said in a statement.
PETA, an animal welfare advocacy group, released a statement saying that the fine is too small and hardly a punishment.
"For an institution that receives $185 million annually in taxpayer funds alone, half of which is used for experiments on animals, a $24,000 fine for years of abusing and neglecting monkeys won't motivate Harvard to do better," it said.
Earlier this year, the school announced in April that it plans to shut down its New England Primate Research Center by 2015 for financial reasons. Its smaller animal facility in the Longwood Medical Area in Boston, with 45 primates, will continue to operate.
