‘Monkeys Will Suffer’: Petition To Stop Plans for the Biggest Macaque Breeding Facility in the US Passes 10,000 Signatures
The proposed facility in a small town in Georgia could hold up to 30,000 monkeys who will be sold to be used in animal testing, but the plans are facing pressure from Species Unite supporters.
A macaque at a medical research primate breeding farm in Cambodia. Credit: Supplied anonymously to Species Unite
Public anger continues to grow over controversial plans to build a huge monkey-breeding facility in a small town in Georgia. The proposed breeding facility will be capable of holding up to 30,000 monkeys. That number is twice the human population of Bainbridge, the southwest Georgia town where the plans have been proposed.
The site is set to cost $396 million, and once up and running will breed long-tailed macaques that will be sold to pharmaceutical companies that use the animals in animal tests and experiments.
Originally, city and county officials were said to be in the process of trying to secure the construction of the facility, by agreeing to more than $58 million in handouts including a 20-year tax abatement scheme and 200 acres of public land. However, due to the uproar from the townspeople of Bainbridge, they have since backpedaled on their initial support and now find themselves facing legal challenges.
Now, a petition, launched by animal advocacy organization Species Unite, to gather support against the facility has received over 10,000 signatures.
Elizabeth Novogratz, founder and president of Species Unite, which has launched the petition said: “The nearly $400 million dollars being spent on this facility could instead be used on human-relevant research methods to cure diseases in humans. If this monkey breeding facility is built, the citizens of Bainbridge will suffer, the environment will suffer and tens of thousands of monkeys will suffer. The very idea of this monkey farm is an atrocity for everyone except the company behind it, who will profit enormously.”
“If this monkey breeding facility is built, the citizens of Bainbridge will suffer, the environment will suffer and tens of thousands of monkeys will suffer.”
The company behind the plans, Safer Human Medicine, is led by former executives of other key companies that specialize in sourcing animals for animal testing. These include Charles River Laboratories, which is currently under civil and criminal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice after it was revealed that monkeys in U.S. labs had been illegally caught from the wild and smuggled from Cambodia. Worryingly, there is no precedent for a breeding facility of this size in the U.S. The next largest similar facility is located in Texas and cages between 6,000 to 11,000 monkeys.
As well as the monkey suffering that will be caused by the facility, the petition highlights the potential environmental and health consequences that the local community will face.
“The people of Bainbridge Georgia do not want to have this suffering on their consciences nor do they want their environment polluted, their property values diminished and their lives put at risk for the sole benefit of a cruel and immoral company that profits off of the torture and killing of one of our closest living relatives,” reads the petition.
Species Unite is urging others to add their name to the petition to help ramp up the pressure to stop the breeding facility from being built. You can sign the petition here.
Learn more about the ongoing fight to stop the Georgia monkey farm by listening to our recent podcast episode with PETA’s Senior Science Advisor, Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel.
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