What the Investigator Heard

"Goddamn … I'm gonna knock you out … you little bitch. You little hateful ass, you."
—Senior Covance technician talking to a monkey whom he is restraining
September 4, 2004

"Yeah, I'm coming for you again today. Yeah. Yep. You again today. I'm gonna kick your ass again, too."
—Female Covance technician speaking to a caged monkey while other monkeys are being restrained for dosing
September 25, 2004

"Open your damn mouth. You crazy ass. Open up, fool … you bastard. Oh you're making me mad now, goddammit."
—Senior Covance technician talking to a monkey in the "grease pit" study who does not want to open his mouth for insertion of the tube
October 17, 2004

"Oh, your belly looks bad. All I know is if I had that rash on my belly by … an incision site, I'd be at the hospital on some serious antibiotics."
—Covance technician referring to the infected incision site on a rhesus monkey after irradiation
October 17, 2004

"They came unexpectedly this time. Usually they show up and they give us a heads-up when they're gonna be back so we ain't got nothing to worry about."
—Covance technician talking about the USDA's inspections and the fact that the lab is given advance notice
November 16, 2004

"I look like I've been in a butcher shop!"
—Covance technician after using large tubing to nasally gavage small monkeys whose noses bled profusely as a result
January 3, 2005

"The ACUC … is powerful if they want to be … there's a lot of politics involved, because … you're losing money from the sponsor, and you're threatening to lose a client who might bring in millions and millions of dollars. You don't want to piss them off."
—Covance technician explaining why a company was allowed to get away with no veterinary care for primates used in a study that caused extreme suffering.
February 9, 2005

"Those things looked like [Q] punched them!"
—A Covance technician describes the tiny monkeys who got bloody noses from nasal gavage
February 21, 2005