California company Santa Cruz Biotechnology, one of the world’s largest suppliers of antibodies for research, agreed to pay a $3.5 million fine, close its research lab and surrender its animal-dealer license in an agreement that resolves USDA complaints that the company mistreated animals, reports the Santa Cruz Tribune. Among its duties, the USDA enforces animal-welfare laws.
The USDA issued a series of complaints beginning in 2010 citing inadequate care of research animals and incomplete records of the treatment of sick animals, said the Tribune. In 2012, when the company had more than 15,000 research animals, it also refused for seven months to give the USDA access to its Lake Ranch facility. Last year, the agency filed a complaint saying the company had repeatedly failed to provide adequate veterinary care to its animals.