If all of this were justified to save human lives, it would still be questionable: it could be argued that it isn't ethical for us to use other species for our own needs. But the truth about animal-based research is that it's been proven to be ineffective. Up to 95% of all drugs deemed safe in animal tests fail in human trials, as animals' physiology is so vastly different from ours.
Please sign/share the petition: Help Stop the Biggest Monkey Breeding Facility in the United States
The issue
What do you know about the small town of Bainbridge, Georgia? Unless
you happen to live in the vicinity, chances are not much. But in the
last few months, the town has been on the lips of countless people:
scientists, animal rights activists, news journalists, locals, and
probably your aunt sharing something about it to her Facebook feed.
The big news is, that the biggest monkey-breeding facility in the US
is about to be built in Bainbridge. Safer Human Medicine, the
company behind the project, is planning a “mini-city” that would
host over 30,000 long-tailed macaques in a large-scale complex.
The aim of breeding these animals? Experimentation
The macaques would subsequently be shipped to universities,
pharmaceutical companies, and research laboratories to undergo a
variety of medical tests. The cost of building the sprawling
facility amounts to approximately $ 369 million, and it would take
up around 200 acres of public land.
It is worth noting that the human population of Bainbridge currently
stands at around 14,000 people, meaning that the number of macaques
would more than double the number of humans in the town. Who,
incidentally, are not too happy about these plans, and with good
reason: long-tailed macaques can spread deadly zoonotic diseases. If
any of the macaques escaped, it would not be the first time an
animal has gotten out of a research facility in the US – on the
contrary, monkeys escaping from much smaller facilities around the
country is quite a common occurrence.
Monkeys imported from other parts of the world for breeding could be
infected with Ebola, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and malaria to name a
few – this has happened on several occasions when it comes to
monkeys used for experimentation in the US. And since 75% of
emerging infectious diseases affecting humans are zoonotic, there is
cause for concern.
What's more, a mega facility like this will produce enormous
quantities of biological waste – around 444,000 gallons of
wastewater per day – which will severely impact the health and
well-being of the surrounding community and poison soil and air.
It's safe to say that the strong opposition that the facility faces
from Bainbridge locals is more than justified.
“There are tens of thousands of monkeys used in experimentation,”
PETA Senior Science Advisor, Dr Lisa Jones-Engel tells Species
Unite. She stresses the risk of disease at the Bainbridge facility
through, for example, insects being attracted to the complex due to
the large amounts of food and biological waste – the possibility of
a mosquito biting a monkey who is carrying disease and then passing
that on to a human is alarming.
Naturally, Safer Human Medicine has assured the residents that the
monkeys at the complex will be free from disease and that their
procedures will be safe. But the citizens of Bainbridge won't have
it. Dr Jones-Engel recalls being present at a council meeting where
countless citizens spoke out against the facility. “They have been
writing thousands of emails, they started a Facebook page...everyone
has rallied round. This community is amazing. They are going to do
everything to ensure this does not happen.” Buoyed by the citizens'
determination, Dr Jones-Engel adds, “This industry has never faced
this type of opposition.”
The animals
The code name for the proposed monkey facility is Liberty, which is
a direct contradiction of what it would subject the animals to.
Monkeys used in research suffer in unimaginable ways, and science
has proven, time and time again, that these primates are as capable
of feeling pain and fear as we are.
The animals trapped in the industry suffer tremendously. Baby
animals born in laboratories are torn away from their mothers. When
they are taken from their habitats in the wild, trappers often shoot
mother animals from trees, stun them with dart guns, and then
capture the baby animals. After this traumatic separation from their
families, primates are often kept in steel cages, in an environment
that is completely unnatural to them.
They are extremely under-stimulated, which makes them depressed:
research shows that 90% of primates in laboratories resort to
abnormal behaviors caused by stress and isolation. In experiments,
primates are subjected to having tubes forced into their nostrils,
being infected with diseases, invasive brain experiments, and
traumatic maternal separation tests where newborn animals are
separated from their mothers to investigate the psychological
effects.
If all of this were justified to save human lives, it would still be
questionable: it could be argued that it isn't ethical for us to use
other species for our own needs. But the truth about animal-based
research is that it's been proven to be ineffective. Up to 95% of
all drugs deemed safe in animal tests fail in human trials, as
animals' physiology is so vastly different from ours.