By Candy Fontana Verde
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GAINSVILLE, Florida (WUFT) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture filed a formal complaint against Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary this month, alleging the Gainesville nonprofit repeatedly violated federal animal welfare regulations.
Founder Kari Bagnall established the sanctuary nearly 30 years ago. It houses more than 160 primates, including monkeys retired from laboratory research, former pets and animals from other captive environments.
Bagnall said the complaint lacks context and doesn’t reflect current conditions. She said the sanctuary has corrected past problems and is drafting a response to the USDA.
Inspectors noted 19 violations of the Animal Welfare Act during more than a dozen visits between September 2021 and June 2026, the complaint alleged.
It said sanctuary staff failed to provide adequate veterinary care, gave incorrect or expired medication, let feces and food waste accumulate, stored food unsafely, failed to control pests and allowed enclosures to break and rust.
Some of the most serious allegations concern the care of two animals who died while under the sanctuary’s care.
The complaint alleged a lack of adequate veterinary care and monitoring contributed to the death of a cotton-top tamarin named Lola in June 2023.
Bagnall said staff initially found Lola unresponsive, gave her fluids and contacted veterinarians. They weren’t able to reach one for about seven hours.
Lola briefly began eating and drinking again before becoming unresponsive the following morning and dying, she said.
The complaint alleged similar oversight in the case of Golden Child, a brown capuchin injured during a fight with his cagemate in June 2024.
Bagnall said a veterinarian provided instructions for treating his wounds. An employee wrote down the instructions and placed them in the designated location, but the person responsible for following up either did not see them or did not know to look there.
Golden Child later died.
“ I don’t know what happened. It was a shock to me and to everyone that something like this could happen here,” she said. “But now we have animal care and everything, any little scratch, wound, everything goes out to everybody.”
Bagnall said Jungle Friends now uses a digital animal-care system that immediately sends information about injuries or behavioral changes to staff members, veterinary assistants and veterinarians.
“We’ve done a lot of improvements and to make sure that nothing like what happened to Golden Child happens again,” she said.
The complaint also alleged that a capuchin received twice the prescribed dose of an expired medication in November 2023.
Bagnall said the employee responsible is no longer allowed to administer medicine. The sanctuary also added additional checks to its medication system, she said.
To address other problems cited in the complaint, Bagnall said the sanctuary has repaired affected areas, improved its rodent-control system, raised its perimeter fence and hired an on-site maintenance team. The sanctuary is in the process of hiring a certified veterinary technician. Four of the sanctuary’s 17 staff members are authorized to perform basic veterinary procedures independently, she said, and others are being trained.
Bagnall said the complaint shocked her because Jungle Friends addressed the problems identified during earlier inspections and improved its results in recent inspections.
Of the four inspections conducted in 2026, three found no violations while one cited rust.
“We’ve done so much and spent so much money and education, training people to what has to happen,” she said. “We’re in a really good place right now.”
Delcianna Winders, a professor at Vermont Law and Graduate School and director of its Animal Law and Policy Institute, said correcting a problem later does not erase the original violation or prevent the USDA from including it in an enforcement case.
“It’s unusual for the USDA to even take this action at any time,” Winders said. “They only do [a complaint] in the most serious of cases.”
Winders said the reports do not indicate that the violations included in the complaint were corrected while inspectors were still at the sanctuary.
“These violations were not corrected at the time, and in fact, there are numerous repeat citations,” she said. “Nineteen of the citations that are included in the complaint were referenced as repeat violations in the inspection reports.”
The complaint called the alleged violations “willful.” Bagnall disagreed, saying she and her employees never intended to put the animals at risk.
Winders said that under the Animal Welfare Act, “willful” does not necessarily mean someone intended to harm an animal. It can mean a license holder knew the rules but failed to follow them, especially after being cited for the same problem before.
“They attest every time their license is renewed that they are familiar with the regulations,” Winders said. “If they violate, and especially if they have previously been cited for the exact same thing, it’s willful.”
The complaint alarmed Lawrence Coyne, a former volunteer and donor who interacted with Jungle Friends from 2001 to 2015 and now lives outside the state.
“I know many of these animals and it’s all personal to me,” he said.
Coyne said he believes Jungle Friends expanded too quickly and has struggled to retain enough experienced employees to care for the animals and maintain the property.
“I know a lot of those animals, and it’s painful to think that they’re suffering because of the lack of staff [and] the lack of ability to watch the monkeys,” he said.
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