Research Animals

Federal Costs for Care of the Silver Spring Monkeys Gao ID: HRD-88-89 June 3, 1988

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information regarding a group of monkeys in a National Institutes of Health (NIH) research program, specifically: (1) care, transportation, litigation, and public relations costs after local police removed the monkeys from a private research firm and transferred them to NIH; (2) arrangements for reimbursement from the firm; (3) whether a proposal to build a new facility for the monkeys involved federal funds; and (4) whether the Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspected the grantee's facility prior to the monkeys' removal.

GAO found that: (1) as of February 29, 1988, federal costs totalled $105,084, which included $93,404 for care, security, and administration, $2,675 for transportation, $21,600 for litigation, and $427 for public relations, less reimbursements of $13,022 from the grantee; (2) the grantee agreed to reimburse NIH for certain other costs; (3) private sources provided $42,750 for part of the care and transportation costs; (4) no federal funds were used to build facilities for the monkeys; and (5) USDA had inspected the facility yearly, but could not provide the inspection records.



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