Animal
Defenders International (ADI)
August 2014
Action Alert: Push for the End to Monkey Tests
...The monkeys suffered a number of severe symptoms including nearly 200 skin lesions, a loss of almost 20% of their body weight and difficulty breathing. One animal died from the disease, another was killed due to “severe” symptoms and the surviving monkeys were all killed at the end of the experiment.
Revealed by the Animal Defenders International: the needless use of
monkeys for disease research. These painful tests cause untold suffering and
waste funds that could otherwise be spent on advanced alternatives. Today,
on International Primate Day, September 1st, please help us stop these
unnecessary and unethical monkey tests.
Macaque monkeys huddle together in their cage
Monkeys killed in smallpox experiments in the US and UK
Eighteen macaque monkeys were shipped from the US Army Medical Research
Institute of Infectious Disease in Maryland to Georgia, where they were
injected with the smallpox virus. They were then ‘treated’ with either a
placebo or the test substance, requiring frequent anaesthesia to monitor
effectiveness. Those who survived the experiment, supported by the Defense
Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), were killed after 28 days. The placebo group
suffered an average of 1,500 skin lesions, lost up to 13% of their body
weight and three suffered hypothermia.
At Public Health England in the UK, 24 macaque monkeys were given one of
four treatments before being injected with a virus to cause monkeypox. The
monkeys suffered a number of severe symptoms including nearly 200 skin
lesions, a loss of almost 20% of their body weight and difficulty breathing.
One animal died from the disease, another was killed due to “severe”
symptoms and the surviving monkeys were all killed at the end of the
experiment. The research, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, aimed to protect people against smallpox, however the
animals were injected with ‘monkeypox’, an inappropriate alternative.
There is no need to use monkeys for smallpox research. The last known case of the disease was in the late 1970s and it was officially declared as eradicated in 1980. Vaccines for smallpox have already been assessed in people and a number of countries including the US and UK have stockpiles.
The “3Bs” after ADI rescued them from a laboratory in Europe
Threatened owl monkeys given rabies in Peru
Eight owl monkeys at the Naval Medical Research Unit were injected with
the rabies virus and monitored, for which they were repeatedly
anaesthetised. Two of the monkeys exhibited rabies symptoms including
partial paralysis and convulsions and were killed after two days. The
remaining animals, who displayed no symptoms, were killed after 134 days.
The study was aimed at controlling the risk of rabies transmission from pet
primates to humans, yet all animal to human rabies transmissions in Peru in
recent years have been from dogs, who can be vaccinated against rabies, or
bats.
This research also goes against efforts to develop a non-animal method of a rabies vaccine for new world monkeys due to the large number of animals needed for such research and the significant pain and distress it can cause.
Three owl monkeys await
their fate
Each of the painful tests described above were completely unnecessary and unscientific. In addition to the flaws mentioned, even though monkeys are our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, how they are affected by disease cannot be translated to people.
Sadly in the US alone over 70,000 monkeys are experimented each year. Many are imported from countries like Mauritius where ADI has exposed terrible suffering on breeding farms. With the exception of Air France, all major passenger airlines have ceased their involvement in this brutal trade.
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