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Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!
S. A. E. N.
"Exposing the truth to wipe out animal experimentation"

Articles and Reports

Government Propaganda – Misleading the American People Concerning Primate Experimentation
By Michael A. Budkie, A.H.T., Executive Director, SAEN

IV. Duplication in Research Wasting the Lives of Primates, and Tax Dollars

Another aspect of the use of primates in experimentation, which should be of concern to the general public, is the value of the experimentation performed within the laboratories. Even if we ignore the issues raised above regarding the inadequacy of the agency enforcing the Animal Welfare Act, and the inability of this agency to maintain accurate statistics, and the violations of the Animal Welfare Act by specific research laboratories, it is very difficult to ignore the criminal pattern of waste within the grant system of the National Institutes of Health, as it applies to primate experimentation. While it is not possible to examine all of primate experimentation, certain types of research can be examined as typical of the whole.

There are currently (for fiscal 2002) 187 separate projects (costing a potential $56,100,000 per year) that examine neural information processing in macaque monkeys. Other areas exhibit similar levels of duplication. 51 projects study cocaine in macaque monkeys ($15,300,000). 44 projects study alcohol in macaque monkeys. 58 study neurobiology. 67 study vision. 56 projects study infant macaques. 68 projects study stress. 255 projects study HIV in macaque monkeys. This is a total of 786 projects in areas that are highly duplicated. The elimination of even half of this duplication would save taxpayers $118,000,000 per year (393 multiplied by the most recent NIH average grant amount), and thousands of primate lives.

Many of these grants have been in effect for decades, often reaching 20 or even 30 years of age. As this system of grants is examined closely it becomes apparent that if a little research is good, allot must be better. Once a few grants are approved in a specific area, that area explodes with possibilities, and more grants. This system seems more prone to support the funding of laboratories than the acquisition of knowledge.

Go on to V. Financial Statistics for the Primate Center System
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