Animal rights group suing UW-Madison

An animal rights group is suing the University of Wisconsin over its use of monkeys in research. They want to get their hands on documents that detail how the animals are used in testing.

The California based group is looking for handwritten notes and records from a university committee meeting where the project was approved.

The study calls for a group of newborn monkeys to be permanently removed from their mothers, then exposed to stressful moments while living with other young monkeys. The end goal is better understand root causes of anxiety and depression in humans.

The group takes issue with the idea of separating the monkeys from their mothers, and filed open records requests to figure out why this type of study was approved.

When it got records from the university, it says there were gaps in details from the meeting.

\"We've asked them for all records including detailed handwritten notes. The reason why this is important is the public should be able to determine if the committee fulfilled its statutory obligation when it comes to approving these tests.\" said Pam Hart, Animal Law Program Director with the Animal Legal Defense Fund.

The lawsuit is pending in Dane County, because of that, the university says it can't comment on the suit.

There's an online petition set up with more than 300-thousand signatures to stop this test. The university also has an online response to the petition.

Because of a standard yearly inspection, researchers from the university were not available to talk to us about the details of study Tuesday, but will speak to us Wednesday.