Primate Experiment Centers in US Set to Receive Additional $30 Million in Taxpayer Funds This Year
The controversial animal testing centers will receive the huge sum to expand their operations, despite multiple welfare issues that have led to monkey injuries and deaths.
File photo of a monkey at a primate breeding farm in Laos. Credit: We Animals Media/Jo-Anne McArthur
Controversial research labs in the US that conduct painful experiments on primates are set to receive an additional $30 million in taxpayer funds this fiscal year.
There are currently seven National Primate Research Centers (NPRCs) across the US. Within the last 15 months, inspections from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have found “critical” noncompliances with the federal Animal Welfare Act at all seven facilities. These instances involve primate injuries and deaths due to staff carelessness or inadequate training and supervision.
Despite these violations, all centers are now set to receive $30 million in funding to renovate and expand their facilities to help continue nonhuman primate experiments, according to financial analysis by animal welfare group Animal Welfare Institute.
The group has already asked Congress to redirect the funds to instead further develop modern research technologies that do not rely on animals, citing the NPRCs’ “long and ongoing history of noncompliance with the Animal Welfare Act”.
File photo of a monkey troop at a primate breeding farm in Laos. Credit: We Animals Media/Jo-Anne McArthur
“These research facilities complain about a monkey shortage, yet they can’t even properly care for the primates they already have,” Eric Kleiman, a researcher for AWI’s Animals in Laboratories Program, said in a statement. “Why should taxpayers fund expansions at facilities with poor animal welfare records?”
More Taxpayer Money Despite Ongoing Welfare Failings
The NPRC system, established by the federal government back in the early 1960s, has consistently received huge financial backing including $88 million in taxpayer money from the National Institutes of Health last year.
The Animal Welfare Institute argues that the centers’ various welfare failings should make them not eligible for further taxpayer dollars. Yet the system is designed to benefit the research labs, which are helped by paltry fines and lax USDA oversight, says AWI.
In fact, USDA inspectors have documented a number of critical noncompliances for which no fines were ever issued. The instances include monkeys dying from being deprived of water or adequate veterinary care, left overnight outside of their enclosure, and strangled by chains which had been improperly installed.
File photo of a monkey at a primate breeding farm in Laos. Credit: We Animals Media/Jo-Anne McArthur
Shockingly, in several situations which involved primate deaths, the USDA waited too long to take action and allowed the five-year statute of limitations for enforcement actions to expire.
Even in cases where welfare violations did lead to a fine, the penalty amount is often insignificant for labs which have access to millions - or even billions - of dollars in funds.
The University of Washington’s (UW) welfare violations are cited by AWI as an example of the failing system. UW’s primate research center has received 12 critical citations from the USDA in the last decade, which involved monkey deaths. Yet one of its latest fines in 2022 was for $3,750 - despite the university having an annual budget of $9.4 billion.
As AWI’s Kleiman explains, “the [USDA] coddles the medical research industry instead of protecting animals — their unwilling subjects — from harm.”
Tale Action
As reported last month, a proposal has been submitted to build a facility capable of holding up to 30,000 monkeys in a small town in Georgia. The animals will be sold for animal testing. City and county officials are said to already 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.
Please join Species Unite in telling the Bainbridge city councilors that the proposed monkey prison must be stopped - before it’s too late. Sign the petition here.
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