Cruelty, Disease, and Outdated Science: Why Plans for the Biggest Monkey-Breeding Facility in the US Must Be Halted
Credit: Basile Morin
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, 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 $369million, 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 humans in the town. Who, incidentally, are not too happy about these plans, and with good reason: long-tailed macaques have the capacity of spreading 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 infectuous 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 a 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.”
Credit: PETA
Some of these people might also be concerned about the animals themselves. The code name for the proposed monkey facility is Liberty, which is a direct contradiction of what it would actually 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 behaviours caused by the 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 new-born 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. “Using animals to try and predict how medicines and treatments are going to work in humans just doesn't work”, says Dr Jones-Engel. And relying on outdated and inefficient research is costing lives, including human ones. Despite the fact of many decades of animal-based research into some common diseases, such as Parkinson's, Alzheimers, diabetes and cancer, the diseases are no closer to being wiped out. Nearly ten-thousand Species Unite supporters who recognize this have signed the urgent petition calling for the facility to be halted on animal protection grounds.
“Using animals to try and predict how medicines and treatments are going to work in humans just doesn’t work.”
In the meantime, human-relevant, animal-free research is making progress. In vitro methods, which use human cells and tissues, are more reliable than the body of an animal. Researchers have also created “organs on chips” which contain human cells and mimic the structure and functionalities of human organs. Three-dimensional models of human organs, such as lungs, can replace animals in a variety of tests. However, the road to implementation can be frustratingly long. To help researchers create this new era of experimentation, PETA's Research Modernization Deal lays out the roadmap for transitioning to an animal-free future of science, with more updated and accurate research that is kinder to animals and safer for humans.
Credit: PETA
Looking to who is behind these plans, it becomes apparent that the operation is based on profit: Safer Human Medicine is led by many of the people who have led companies involved in sourcing and breeding animals for experiments with questionable ethics, such as Covance, Envigo, and Charles River Laboratories – the company currently under civil and criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice for illegally catching monkeys in their natural habitats in Cambodia and smuggling them into the country. Attempting to allure local residents with the promise of jobs – many of which will in reality not only be underpaid, but also expose the workers to the risk of zoonotic diseases – the company is actually looking to raise its own profits from the high cost at which the monkeys will be sold.
What might bring monkey experimentation down? Maybe the very same thing that enticed companies to get into the business in the first place: money. “These long-tailed macaques will be added to the Endangered Species Act,” predicts Dr Jones-Engel. “It's going to take a while, but when they do, the amount of regulations these companies will face in order to use these animals will become so onerous as to just make it just not worthwhile.” It's bleak to imagine that a loss of profit is the only thing that would bring these atrocities to a halt, but in the meantime, we can all do what the passionate and commendable residents of Bainbridge are doing – stand up for what we believe in.
Listen to the full conversation with Dr Lisa Jones-Engel on the Species Unite podcast here.
Nearly 10,000 other compassionate people have signed the urgent Species Unite petition to help stop the construction of this macaque breeding facility. Will you join them? Add your name here.
Written by Sascha Camilli
Sascha Camilli is a writer, speaker and vegan fashion expert. She founded the world's first digital vegan fashion magazine Vilda, and is the author of Vegan Style: Your Plant-Based Guide to Beauty, Fashion, Home & Travel. Her podcast, Catwalk Rebel, is out now.
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