Over 70,000 primates (rhesus monkeys, baboons, squirrel monkeys, chimpanzees, etc.) are experimented on every year in the United States. Many thousands of primates are also imprisoned in labs for breeding and conditioning. Recent USDA statistics reveal that over 124,000 primates are held captive in U.S. laboratories.

2)
Pick the style of event you would like to organize. Protests, vigils, news conferences, informational tabling, leafleting, etc. are all worthwhile events. The type of event that you choose is limited only by your own imagination. Utilize the informational resources on the SAEN website to help in your planning.

3)
Complete the participation form so that we can support your efforts. We will provide you with information, press releases, and other technical support that will make your events more effective.

Read about the lives of laboratory primates:

• A Throng of Lost Souls
• Glimpses provides an insight into the everyday existence of primates within the New Iberia lab in Louisiana
• His Name Is Ford
• Life in a Box describes the existence of rhesus monkeys at the University of Michigan
• Nameless
• Tear At The Jacket
• The Reality of Primate Experimentation in the United States: Lies, Greed, and Insanity
• The Pain of Animal Experimentation discusses life for primates inside the laboratories of the University of Minnesota
• They Are Only Numbers reveals the violence that primates experience within the laboratories of the University of California, Davis
• Tolerance

SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Many primates are caged in facilities owned by the federal government. Over 7500 are imprisoned within the laboratories of the National Institutes of Health. The Department of Defense incarcerates over 1600. Other federal agencies also use primates in experimentation including NASA, USDA, FDA, and the CDC. And animal dealers who sell primates to labs lock away 7000 - 10000. Over 20,000 primates are imported to the U.S. for experimentation every year.

Many of these primates experience horrible conditions. Recent government documentation has revealed primates dying of dehydration, starvation, hypothermia, heat stress, being boiled alive in cage washers, wasting diseases, hepatitis, encephalitis, and many other severe illnesses.

The experiments to which these intelligent animals are subjected are extremely cruel. Many primates are confined to restraint chairs for many hours. Others suffer through the throes of withdrawal from addictive drugs. Devices are often literally bolted to the skulls of primates using steel screws. Infants are ripped away from their mothers and driven insane. This list of cruelties only scratches the surface.

These intelligent social animals often suffer terribly from isolation. Approximately 35% of the animals housed in labs undergo some level of social isolation. Solitary housing has been shown to cause psychologically aberrant behavior in primates within laboratories. In fact, as many as 10% of isolated primates engage in self-injurious behavior, biting and tearing at their own flesh though recent information indicates that these numbers may be very low.

Duplication within the system is rampant, with some experiments being funded dozens of times simultaneously, wasting tens of millions in federal funding.

Though we often speak about tens of thousands of animals, we must remember that we are really speaking about individuals. These are intelligent animals with needs, desires, and intelligence. However, our laboratories treat them as though they were little more than furry test tubes. Please read about the lives of individual animals on our website.

It is crucial that all of us work together to educate the public about the horrors of primate experimentation. There are several important steps to be taken to prepare for events in your area.

Remember: The primates who are suffering in laboratories as you read this letter are depending on us to work together to fight for their freedom. We must exercise our rights (free speech, freedom of assembly, etc.) so that we can fight for the recognition of their rights. They have no voice but ours. They have no protection, no hope, unless you act. For every activist that does nothing, more primates suffer and die.

The decision is yours. You have the choice to do nothing, but your decision has consequences for the primates. Your inaction condemns primates to suffering and death. Your hard work can bring their freedom closer.

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