Tested Macaques Now Safe and Happy
Animal Stories from All-Creatures.org

FROM PrimarilyPrimates.org
July 2019

We will never forget the macaques walking up to greet each other for the first time with no bars separating them. Some held each other, bewildered and wide-eyed as they looked around at their new environment.

Watching macaques Gabriel, Tonks and Bojangles enjoy simple things like foraging, snacking on yellow or red bell peppers and fruit or patrolling their habitat and making alarm calls whenever they see something, it’s easy to forget their unfortunate past.

They had been at a New Jersey firm that tested substances for toxicity, which went out of business in 2010. Normally we never hear, in such situations, what happens to the animals used by the company as they are often euthanized. This time, we did.

They were able to have a future thanks to our supporters, and we are grateful for all the day-to-day accomplishments you make possible.

We found out about 55 male macaque monkeys who were still alive, and after weeks of court deliberations, the enterprise released them. Organizing a response with three other sanctuaries, we helped all 55 to safety.

Java macaques are tree-dwelling monkeys, and they would normally be found in coastal woodlands and rainforests of Southeast Asia. But these monkeys had lived their entire lives caged. They needed immediate and long-term care from people who understood their needs.

Primarily Primates welcomed a truck filled with most of the monkeys in 2010: 25 arrived wearing the restraint chair collars that confined them for four to six years as they were kept in place for experiments. A former lab worker who volunteers at Primarily Primates explains: A pipe is used to hook on to an opening in the collar to remove the monkeys from their cages, and to guide them into a chair. Next, screws are applied to the collar to hold the monkey in place while their arms are pinned down.

More than a dozen kind-hearted people learned about the extraordinary rescue on Twitter and offered $10 a month to sponsor particular monkeys. Most of the monkeys needed names too. Five-digit identification numbers were tattooed across each monkey’s small chest. One had been named “Monster”, and he became Gabriel. The new sponsors suggested a variety of additional names, including Bojangles and Tonks, as well as Neville, Lee, Peanut, Rudy, Brownie, Jupiter, Blaise, Milano, Kera, Shiva and Theo.

Sponsorships bring community awareness to what animals go through when they are exploited for research, and at the same time to support continued quality nutrition, care and housing for the monkeys. Living in their groups of three to four, interacting and enjoying nutritious food, each of these macaques could live another 10 years or more.

For all they endured, they adjusted wonderfully to their new lives.

We will never forget the macaques walking up to greet each other for the first time with no bars separating them. Some held each other, bewildered and wide-eyed as they looked around at their new environment.

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