Archives

An institution that conducted experiments on approximately 500 hundred chimpanzees and made a commitment to provide the survivors with lifelong care has abandoned the ones who are still alive, leaving them to die of starvation. The New York Blood Center (NYBC), which tested treatments and vaccines on the great apes at a medical research center in Liberia from 1974 to 2005, has terminated its $30,000/month funding to feed and care for the chimps, who are living on secluded islands near the country’s capital, Monrovia.

The chimpanzees raised at the NY Blood Center’s research facility are dependent on human caregivers for sustenance (all photos: screenshots The Real Planet of the Apes)

NYBC, which has reportedly earned over $500 million in royalties for discoveries made at the chimp research center, has neither denied the allegations nor responded to repeated inquiries from advocacy groups around the world.

The NY Blood Center experimented on chimpanzees at the Liberia Biomedical Research Institute from 1974 – 2006.

According to Dr. Fatorma Borlay, the current head of the facility where the experiments were conducted, the New York Blood Center “left [the chimps] to die of starvation.” Another advocate with local contacts says that the situation is “totally desperate,” as chimps could very well perish if the Blood Center doesn’t resume funding. As a stop gap measure, some of the chimps’ caretakers have, as volunteers, continued to travel to the islands to provide the chimps with limited amounts of food purchased with money donated by the Humane Society of the United States and other groups and individuals.

Workers feed former laboratory chimps living on secluded islands near Liberia’s capital, Monrovia.

In 1974, the New York Blood Center launched its chimp research program on the grounds of the then defunct Liberian Institute for Biomedical Research. According to Betsy Brotman, who directed the program, Liberia was chosen because of the availability of the facility; the cooperation of the government; and the large number of chimps who could no longer be kept by locals as pets.

Caretaker and chimps at NY Blood Center’s research facility in Liberia

In 1984, Ms. Brotman acknowledged the obligation of the New York Blood Center to provide the chimps with a humane retirement: ”It’s our responsibility to try to pay them back by letting them live out their lives in their natural environment.” She repeated the assertion in The Real Planet of the Apes, a 2014 documentary film about her research and the islands on which the chimps were retired: “If you’re going to do work in chimpanzees, you should set up a system so that at the end of the research they have a place where they can . . .  live a nice chimp life to the best of whatever is available.”

A caretaker at the NY Blood Center’s research facility in Liberia

Under Ms. Brotman’s leadership, the New York Blood Center released the chimps onto six islands near Monrovia where they would be safe from human predators and where employees from the research facility who knew them could provide them with lifelong care. “That’s what we agreed upon doing, and we did it,” said Brotman in The Real Planet of the Apes.

The NY Blood Center broke its promise to provide lifelong care to the research chimps

Advocates, who speculate that the Blood Center used the distraction of the Ebola epidemic as an opportunity to discreetly extricate itself from its commitment, have staged two disruptions inside of the lobby of the organization’s headquarters.

UPDATE: The NY Times and Motherboard have picked up the story and provided more detailed information about the plight of the chimps and the decision by the NY Blood Center to abandon them. In addition, Jane Goodall sent an open letter to the NY Blood Center demanding that it reinstates the funding.

A former NY Blood Center lab chimp in Monrovia, Liberia

Please participate in the call to action and join the Facebook page: New York Blood Center: Do the Right Thing.

Hendry County, Florida, a rural area virtually unknown outside of its own borders, is hardly a hotbed for animal-rights activism. Perhaps that is why Jessica Thomas, a nearby resident, surprised even herself when, during a conference of regional government and business leaders, she jumped onto the stage to display her #MonkeyGate t-shirt to protest County officials’ efforts to turn Hendry into the nation’s lab monkey breeding capital. Her spur of the moment decision led to several local news stories that project their message to a much wider audience.

After she was escorted off the stage, Ms. Thomas told the audience, “We’ve had enough of monkey experimentation and monkey abuse happening in Hendry County, and everyone needs to know about it.”

Activist Jessica Thomas, who lives near one of the four monkey breeding facilities, says, “We have to stand up against injustice.”

Hendry County is now home to two primate breeding facilities that house thousands of monkeys. Two more that would bring thousands of additional monkeys are under construction, and area residents are determined to shut them down.

Bioculture, a company that was expelled from Puerto Rico by its Supreme Court, is one of two new monkey breeding facilities under construction in Hendry County.

Hendry County is home to four facilities that breed monkeys for lab experiments. Two are fully operational; two are under construction.

In addition to animal cruelty, neighborhood activists have expressed grave concerns about the spread of disease from the monkeys to humans and other animals; groundwater contamination with toxic monkey waste; the effect of monkey breeding facilities on property values; and the impact of escaped monkeys on the local environment. The nearby Everglades are already under siege by non-native invasive species.

Hundreds of non-native wild macaque monkeys with herpes B virus live in Florida (photo: Graham McGeorge/ Barcroft Media)

Dr. Madeleine Doran tells reporters that residents do not want their community to be the nation’s lab monkey breeding capital.

“County officials, who have much to gain financially from these monkey breeders, thought they could sneak these companies into our community because most of us are too focused on making ends meet to put up resistance,” Jessica Thomas said after the disruption. “They didn’t think residents would rise up to protest their secrecy, not to mention the cruelty and public health issues associated with breeding thousands of monkeys in and near residential areas.”

In March, a whistleblower said that Primate Products, a Hendry County monkey breeder that makes primate restraining devices, was illegally performing c-section abortions on pregnant monkeys in order to harvest and sell the fetal organs.

After the disruption, Ms. Thomas told reporters, “It was a spur of the moment decision to jump onto the stage. I saw all of these community leaders assembled in one place, and I realized that, if I don’t protest the people responsible for these injustices in this high profile setting, then how can we expect them to take our demands seriously? After all, they’ve refused to answer our questions for over a year.”

Jessica Thomas disrupts Greg Gillman, the President of the Hendry County Economic Council who is largely responsible for bringing monkey breeding companies into the County.

Independent journalist Jane Velez-Mitchell of Jane UnChained, who traveled from New York to report on the press conference, asked Hendry Commissioner Karson Turner why the County didn’t hold public hearings before approving the monkey breeding facilities, as required by Florida’s Sunshine Law. In response, Mr. Turner, who has been an advocate for the facilities, said he would meet with the community. “That is welcome news to those who have been trying to have a dialog with the Commissioners for over a year,” said Velez-Mitchell.

Animal rights activists in Florida protest Primate Products, one of four monkey breeding facilities in Hendry County.

In November 2014, the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) filed a lawsuit against Hendry County or failing to hold a public hearing about the approval of Primera Science Center, one of the two new monkey breeding facility approved in secret by County commissioners. The lawsuit is ongoing.

Please share this “MonkeyGate” Facebook page with people you know in Central and South Florida: Put an End Hendry County Monkey Breeding Facilities.

Ask Hendry County’s five commissioners to stop the construction of the Bioculture and Primera Science Center monkey breeding facilities pending county and/or state investigations: bocc1@hendryfla.net, bocc2@hendryfla.net, bocc3@hendryfla.net, bocc4@hendryfla.net, bocc5@hendryfla.net

Primate Products, a company at the center of the MonkeyGate scandal in Hendry County, Florida, has consistently lied to and misled the public since the media began reporting on its activities, which critics describe as “illegal.” The company, which breeds monkeys for experiments and manufactures equipment for primate labs, maintained in a recent letter to the County that it has consistently obeyed the law, in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Monkeys at Primate Products (source: News-Press)

As the public waits to see if and how the County disciplines Primate Products for violating zoning laws, TheirTurn is highlighting several ways in which the company has deceived the public:

The Surgeries – In March, a whistleblower reported that Primate Products cut fetuses out of pregnant monkeys in order to harvest and sell their organs. When confronted with this information, the County administrator said that procedures violate by zoning laws, and he sent a letter to the company asking that it disclose all of its activities. In its response letter, Primate Products not only claims that the c-section abortions are permitted under the agricultural zoning but also minimizes the invasive surgeries by referring to them as the “collection of fetal tissue.”

According to Primate Products, the restrainer it manufactures provides “trouble-free accessibility”

The whistleblower also reported that Primate Products illegally assigned the c-section abortions to vet techs instead of veterinarians. Vet techs are neither trained nor licensed to perform surgery. The company again dismissed the allegations, telling a reporter with the News Press that its business is exempt from the law.

The Expansion – In an effort to present Primate Products as an ethical company that prioritizes the interests of the monkeys, Primate Products stated in its letter to the County that it abides by the 3 “Rs” of research – reduction, refinement and replacement. However, the growth of Primate Products’ breeding business depends exclusively on increasing the number of monkeys used in labs. Furthermore, if Primate Products is determined to decrease the number of monkeys used in research, it would not be working to import thousands of additional monkeys for an expansion on its property.

A partially completed expansion of monkey breeding facilities on the land owned by Primate Products

The Monkeys – In its letter to Hendry County, Primate Products wrote that the company imported only captive-bred monkeys. When the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida (ARFF) uncovered USDA documents proving that the company imported wild caught monkeys, Primate Products was forced to admit to the lie.

In a recent interview with the News Press, the President of Primate Products, Jeff Rowell, justified monkey captivity by saying that the animals are safe from poachers. Yet poaching is precisely how Primate Products  acquired many of its monkeys in the first place.

Animal rights activists in Florida protest Primate Products

Monkey breeding facilities and labs are among the world’s most unsafe places for monkeys

The only monkeys who are potentially safe in Florida are those who have escaped from Primate Products and other Hendry County-based monkey breeding facilities, though these escapes pose a public health risk to Florida’s human population and to the nearby Everglades where escaped monkeys can breed, become an invasive species and compromise the ecosystem. Primate Products says the last monkey escape took place three years ago.

Hundreds of non-native wild macaque monkeys with herpes B virus live in Florida (photo: Graham McGeorge/Barcroft Media)

The Tenant – Primate Products has leased land to Bioculture, which is also a monkey breeding company, even though it was expelled from Puerto Rico because its breeding facility there violated zoning laws. Can Primate Products really be trusted if it is leasing land to a company with this type of history?

Sign at Bioculture gate states that the company does “testing” and “research,”  which violate zoning laws

Perhaps Primate Products feels secure in lying to and deceiving the public because the company believes that the County will protect it. After all, the company has, according to WinkNews, made “large contributions” to the county. According to residents, these donations were substantial enough for county officials to approve a massive “expansion” of Primate Products without informing the public, as required by Florida’s Sunshine Law. But now that the story has become a scandal that people around the world are following, can the County continue to turn a blind eye to the illegal activities that have been conducted inside?

On Tuesday, April 28th, the Hendry County Board of Commissioners is holding a public meeting. If you live near Labelle, Florida, please attend in order to be a voice for the monkeys.

Please share this “MonkeyGate” Facebook page with people you know in Central and South Florida: Put an End Hendry County Monkey Breeding Facilities.

Please ask Hendry County’s five commissioners to stop the expansion of Primate Products pending county and/or state investigations: bocc1@hendryfla.net, bocc2@hendryfla.net, bocc3@hendryfla.net, bocc4@hendryfla.net, bocc5@hendryfla.net

In a shocking new development in the MonkeyGate scandal in Hendry County, Florida, a former employee of Primate Products told WinkNews in an exclusive interview that vet technicians cut fetuses out of pregnant monkeys and sold the organs. His allegations dovetail with documents obtained by the TV station.

Macaque monkeys (photo: BUAV)

David Roebuck, who was a vet tech with Primate Products, said that he resigned from the company in disgust when he was asked to vacuum pack and freeze the livers, lungs, kidneys and brains of the aborted monkeys. Mr. Roebuck also said he was shocked to discover that the invasive surgeries were being performed by vet techs, not veterinarians.

David Roebuck resigned from Primate Products when he learned that fetuses were being cut out of pregnant monkies

Mr. Roebuck also said that vet techs killed the fetuses to prevent them from being born alive. Nursing infants, he explained, would reduce the supply of monkey milk that Primate Products has available to sell. On its website, Primate Products advertises “serum, plasma, and tissue samples from cynomolgus macaques and rhesus macaques.”

Primate Products is located on land zoned for “agricultural” use. Residents assert that conducting any procedure, much less invasive and lethal surgeries, constitutes a clear violation.

County officials have not yet announced what course of action they will take against Primate Products, but residents are demanding that the County halt the construction of several new buildings which would reportedly house between 5,000 – 14,000 additional monkeys. Hendry County residents only learned about this massive expansion when the organization Drones for Animal Defense released aerial footage. Residents are now conferring with lawyers to determine whether to seek an injunction or pursue other legal avenues to curb the expansion.

Drone footage of Monkey Breeding Facility under construction in Hendry County, FL

Primera Science Center is one of two monkey breeding facilities approved behind closed doors by Hendry County officials

Resident of Hendry County attend public meetings to air their opposition to the new monkey breeding facilities

1. Ask Hendry County’s five commissioners to stop the construction of the Primate Product expansion: bocc1@hendryfla.net, bocc2@hendryfla.net, bocc3@hendryfla.net, bocc4@hendryfla.net, bocc5@hendryfla.net

2. Tweet #MonkeyGate with this article and your thoughts on importing more monkeys into Florida to be bred for lab experiments.

Just four months after filing a lawsuit against Hendry County, Florida, for approving a monkey breeding facility without soliciting public comment, local residents discovered that County officials secretly approved another monkey breeding facility.

On Tuesday morning, they are holding a press conference at the Hendry County courthouse to express their outrage about the illegal lack of transparency as well as their grave concerns about the public safety and animal cruelty issues associated with the secret facilities. They will also ask what other secrets County officials are hiding from tax-paying residents.

Hendry County residents discovered a second monkey facility secretly approved by local officials.

Jane Velez-Mitchell of JaneUnchained recently traveled from New York to Florida to speak to residents who say they are determined to prevent Hendry County from becoming the nation’s capital for the importation and breeding of lab monkeys.

The plaintiffs in the case against Hendry, who are being represented by the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), claim that County officials not only violated Florida’s Sunshine Law, which requires the County to hold a public hearing on matters that affect the community, but also broke zoning laws by illegally approving a wild monkey operation on land zoned for agricultural use. When ALDF filed the lawsuit, residents were not yet aware that the County had, behind closed doors, approved a second monkey breeding facility.

Residents gather at Hendry County administrative building to protest secret monkey breeding facilities

The facility that is the subject of the ALDF lawsuit, Primera Science Center, is being built by PreLabs, an Illinois-based company which reportedly intends to import 3,200 macaque monkeys from Mauritius, an island off the east coast of Africa.

Primera Science Center, a monkey breeding facility under construction in Hendry County, FL.

The newly-discovered facility has already been built and is owned by the Mauritius-based company Bioculture. Bioculture is leasing land from Primate Products, a company that breeds monkeys and manufactures equipment for use in monkey labs. Area residents, who are determined to shut down this facility, do not know if Bioculture has already imported monkeys, and the company’s Sales & Marketing Director refused to answer any questions when TheirTurn reached him by phone. But the residents’ efforts are not without precedent. In 2012, the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico ruled that Bioculture’s already-constucted monkey breeding facility in Puerto Rico could not be opened because it was illegally built on land that was zoned for other purposes.

Residents are waging a battle against Hendry County officials to prevent their community from becoming the nation’s monkey breeding capital

The Animal Rights Foundation of Florida (ARFF), which has worked for years to prevent these facilities from being approved, believes that Air France, the only commercial airline that transports monkeys, will ship the animals from Mauritius for both PreLabs and Bioculture.

Actor James Cromwell participates in PETA protest against Air France at Los Angeles airport

Bioculture kidnaps and breeds macaques in Mauritius and sells them to monkey breeding facilities

Hendry County residents fear that the presence of thousands of exotic animals poses a safety hazard for the community. And their concerns are not unfounded. In early March, the CDC began conducting an investigation at the Tulane National Primate Research Center where monkeys died after being exposed to deadly bacteria that was mysteriously released from a separate, high security section of the lab.

Tulane National Primate Center (photo: Ellis Lucia)

According to Allison Young, an investigative reporter with USA Today, biosafety lapses have been reported all across the country, including at the Center for Disease Control, “They’ve had incidents involving Ebola, anthrax, and a very deadly strain of bird flu.”

Florida already has a population of hundreds of non-native wild macaque monkeys. Over the past 10 years, wildlife officials, who describe the animals as a “public health hazard,” have captured 700 of them. The majority of these monkeys tested positive for the herpes-B virus.

Wild, non-native macaque monkey in Silver Springs, FL (photo: Graham McGeorge)

The ALDF’s lawsuit against Hendry County is ongoing. Area residents are now meeting to discuss how to handle the newly discovered Bioculture facility.

1. Local residents have organized a press conference on Tuesday morning at 9:00 a.m. in front of the Hendry County courthouse. Please spread the word so that local residents and advocates attend.

2. Please sign this form letter demanding that Air France stops transporting monkeys for lab experiments. And please boycott Air France until it does. All of the world’s other major commercial airlines refuse to transport monkeys to breeding facilities and laboratories.