The University of Connecticut Health Center has halted a neuroscience experiment involving rhesus monkeys and penalized the researcher overseeing the project, after two of the three primates in the work died and the the U.S. Department of Agriculture cited the laboratory for a dozen violations of animal-welfare laws, according to The Hartford Courant.

The shutdown of the lab, in Farmington, Conn., happened last summer but was disclosed only this week. The closure stemmed from inspections that found such violations as a failure to provide alternatives to potentially painful or distressful procedures, a failure to provide adequate water, a failure to provide adequate veterinary care, and a failure to adequately train handlers, the Courant reported. The research was intended to study how the brain controls the eyes.

In 2002 the university’s main campus, in Storrs, Conn., admitted to more than 50 violations of the Animal Welfare Act and agreed to pay a $129,500 fine for, among other things, the improper care and inhumane deaths of numerous laboratory animals.