Controversial plans for a huge monkey farm in a small Georgia city will now be taken to the Georgia Supreme Court as concerned residents up the ante
The planned facility will house up to 30,000 monkeys, who will be bred for use in painful and often fatal animal tests.
A long-tailed macaque at a breeding facility in Cambodia. Image supplied to Species Unite
The fate of controversial plans to build a huge monkey-breeding farm in a small city in Georgia will now be decided by the Georgia Supreme Court, as the fight against the planned facility rumbles on.
Earlier this month, the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Safer Human Medicine, the company behind the proposed facility that will be built in the city of Bainbridge. The ruling dismissed the resident’s appeal to vacate a $300 million revenue bond which is needed for construction to go ahead, meaning the breeding farm can now proceed.
Following the legal setback, residents vowed to continue in their fight against the plans.
Now, the Decatur County District Attorney has officially filed his intent to bring the case to the state Supreme Court, local news reported this week.
The Georgia Supreme Court will now decide whether to hear District Attorney Joe Mulholland’s case, or accept the Court of Appeals previous ruling.
How did a small city become involved in plans for the largest monkey farm in the US?
Safer Human Medicine (SHM) plans to house up to 30,000 monkeys at the facility, which would make it the largest monkey-breeding farm in the US. The site, which is set to cost $396 million, will breed long-tailed macaques who will be sold to pharmaceutical companies that use the animals in animal tests and experiments.
The company says it selected the small Georgia city of Bainbridge after reviewing 13 sites in six different states, and executives specifically noted Bainbridge’s hospitable environment and quality of its people.
Residents attending meetings to stop the controversial plans. Credit: PETA
However, city residents including those living nearby to the planned facility, say the company’s plans were approved in back-door meetings where the public had no opportunity to voice their concerns.
After city officials approved the huge facility in December 2023, many residents in the city became aware of the situation for the first time, and news that Bainbridge would become a “monkey city” quickly spread.
“No one showed up at the hearing for us to talk about what we [Safer Human Medicine] were doing. So we stood before the judge. We got approved, and then somewhere two or three weeks later, a switch flipped, and … folks … started to raise concerns”, Dave Johst, President of Safer Human Medicine explained to local news.
Within weeks, residents were packing city council meetings and raising their concerns over the size of the facility, and its potential noise, smell, and health risks to the local community.
Credit: PETA
The controversy began to receive international news coverage, and details emerged of alleged misconduct including past animal welfare incidents with executives of Safer Human Medicine.
Residents’ fight continues
The fight against the facility shows no signs of slowing down.
Safer Human Medicine’s plans currently face two lawsuits filed by Bainbridge residents. The first alleges that area leaders violated the Georgia Open meetings act in the initial planning stages by approving the deal without residents’ knowledge.
The second lawsuit claims that the huge facility will create a public nuisance, and pose risks such as exposure to infectious agents and hazardous waste leaks. It is estimated that the proposed facility would produce more than 444,000 gallons of wastewater including the feces, urine and other fluids from 30,000 caged monkeys.
Please join Species Unite in speaking out against the monkey-breeding facility plans by signing our petition here.
Learn more by listening to the Species Unite podcast episode with Jones-Engel, ‘S11. E5: Lisa Jones-Engel: Stop the Georgia Monkey Farm!’
Read more about the solutions creating a world without animal testing here.
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