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.

For the first time ever, U.S. animal rights activists are staging a protest against Australia’s live export trade. The organizer, Loretta Smalls, says it’s “a show of solidarity with thousands of our Australian brothers and sisters who are fighting to ban the horrific practice.” The protest will take place at the Australian consulate in Los Angeles on April 15th.

U.S. animal rights activists to protest Australia’s “horrific” live export trade in Los Angeles on 4/15

Each year, Australia ships millions of live sheep, cattle and goats to countries in the Middle East and Asia where they are slaughtered for meat. Footage taken during more than 30 investigations conducted by Animals Australia demonstrates that many of the animals who are exported endure “routine abuse” and “brutal slaughter” in countries that have few, if any, protections in place for animals. In addition, millions of animals have died on the ships during the treacherous overseas journeys.

For the Australian activists, the U.S. protest can’t come soon enough. “We need all the international support that we can get,” said Sue Clarke, an activist in Brisbane, Australia. “In spite of growing public demand to end live exports, our government is working to expand them.” In fact, Australia is finalizing plans to ship an estimated one million cattle to China each year. If the $1 billion deal is signed, the number of cattle exported would double from its current levels.

Cows being unloaded from a live transport ship

As the government works to increase the number of animals exported, it is also reducing the amount of oversight, which, according to Australian activists, is already wholly inadequate. Starting on April 1st, the Department of Agriculture will decrease by 30% the number of audits of unloading docks, feedlots, slaughterhouses and other live export facilities.

Australian cow in Gaza (photo: Animals Australia)

Protests against the live export trade across Australia attract hundreds of people, but the government is unmoved by the public backlash and the graphic videos that have triggered it. In fact, Australia’s Minister of Agriculture Barnaby Joyce stated in late January that a review of the government’s oversight program “demonstrates that Australian livestock exported overseas are treated humanely in almost every instance.”

Live export protest in Sydney (photo: James Morgan)

Of all of the countries in Asia and the Middle East that receive live exports from Australia, only Israel has a community of local activists who are working to stop them. According to the Israeli group Against Live Transports, about 200,000 sheep and cattle are shipped each year from Australia to Israel. The entire trip from the feedlots in Australia to the slaughterhouses in Israel is treacherous for the animals, but the activists call particular attention to the one leg of the journey for which they have the most documentation – the unloading of the animals. On April 8th, dozens of Israeli activists are traveling to the port city of Eilat to protest the arrival of a transport ship from Australia.

Animal rights activists with Against Live Transports use street theater to educate the public about live export cruelty (photo: Against Live Transports)

Live export protest in Eilat, Israel on April 8th. Translation: Stop the Horror (photo: Against Live Transports)

The U.S. and Israel are not the only countries to protest Australia’s live export trade. Activists in the Czech Republic, Greece and Egypt have also demonstrated in solidarity with Australian activists — while activists in England battle their own country’s live animal exports.

Activists with 269Life in the Czech Republic protest Australia’s live exports

If you live in or near Los Angeles, please participate in the protest against Australia on April 15th.

Please visit Stop Live Exports and Animals Australia’s Ban Live Export initiative to learn more about live exports and find out how you can help.

After TheirTurn broke the news that officials in Hendry County secretly approved a second new monkey breeding facility, several media outlets in Central Florida conducted their own investigations to confirm the report. What one TV station uncovered is sending shockwaves through the state of Florida.

According to USDA documents discovered by Wink News, Primate Products, a different monkey breeding facility in Hendry County, has conducted hundreds of experiments on monkeys — illegally. In a press conference on Tuesday, the County Administrator said that he had no knowledge of the experiments and that conducting them on land zoned for “agriculture” violates the law. As it is, area residents are arguing in an ongoing lawsuit against the County that breeding monkeys for lab experiments does not constitute “agriculture.”

The nature of the experiments is not revealed in the USDA documents, but Primate Products manufactures several products used in monkey testing, including restraint devices.

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

The disturbing revelations about the existing monkey breeding facility, Primate Products, come just two days after Drones for Animal Defense released aerial footage of the new one under construction — adding to a growing scandal that is being dubbed by the local press as “MonkeyGate.”

The drone footage, taken by an activist who was chased for miles by company employees, not only confirms the existence of Bioculture’s new monkey breeding center, but it also shows its massive scale. An investigative reporter who has researched the BioCulture facility – Amir Shuan with Israel’s largest newspaper Yedioth Ahronot, has said that it has the capacity to house 14,000 monkeys, which is more than three times the number of primates already held captive in Hendry County.

Drone footage of Bioculture’s partially-constructed monkey breeding facility in Hendry County, FL

On Monday, the same day that activists released the incriminating drone footage of the enormous facility under construction, county officials issued a press release denying that it’s new — stating that it is merely an expansion of Primate Products. During Tuesday’s press conference, however, Jane Velez-Mitchell of Jane UnChained challenged the county’s claim by pointing out that everything about Bioculture’s facility is new — the company, the buildings and the thousands of macaque monkeys that Bioculture hopes to import from overseas.

Today, the local Fire and Rescue District Commissioner, Matt Smith, gave area residents another reason to worry. In an interview with NewsPress, he said that first responders have not been briefed about how to handle emergencies at the facilities, echoing concerns raised by Velez-Mitchell at the earlier press conference: “In the event of a hurricane and the escape of hundreds or thousands of monkeys, what’s going to happen? Where’s the liability? Who’s ultimately responsible if these monkeys escape and bite people?”

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

Florida state senator Dwight Bullard added to the chorus of residents criticizing the secrecy of Hendry County officials, saying the “solution is transparency from the individuals and organizations who are seeking to have a positive relationship with the community.”

Florida state senator Dwight Bullard hits the airwaves in 2014 to ask Hendry County to pause construction of Bioculture’s monkey breeding facility

Amidst the revelations of illegal experiments, a lack of emergency preparedness, and secrecy surrounding two new monkey breeding facilities, Hendry County residents appear to be waging a war with their public officials until the County hits the pause button on the Bioculture’s new monkey breeding facility. 

Please sign petition asking Hendry County officials to  halt construction of new monkey breeding facility.

Hendry County has issued a press release asserting that media reports on a second secret new monkey breeding facility are “inaccurate” because the facility in question was constructed on property that has been used for primate breeding purposes for more than ten years. The County is “formally requesting a retraction or correction” due to “erroneous information.” (See County’s full statement below).

TheirTurn has posted the County’s statement but will not be issuing a correction or retraction to the original story. A response to the county’s statement issued by the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida (ARFF) explains why TheirTurn’s story and those that followed are, in fact, accurate (see below).

Statement by Animal Rights Foundation of Florida (ARFF)

In its attempt to rebut news about a second new monkey breeding facility, the county has, in fact, confirmed its existence and the company behind it, Bioculture — the same company whose monkey breeding facility in Puerto Rico was shut down by the Puerto Rican Supreme Court after much controversy. The fact that Bioculture’s new facility was built on land that is also the site of another company that breeds monkeys (Primate Products) does not change the fact that Bioculture is a separate company that has built several new buildings that are designed to house and breed thousands of additional monkeys in Hendry County. (See satellite image below). Based on Hendry’s statement, both Bioculture and Primate Products lease the land for their respective primate facilities from Panther Tracts, LLC.

The news of the second new monkey breeding facility, which caught area residents by surprise, comes just four months after several Hendry residents sued the County for failing to hold a public meeting about a different monkey breeding facility, Primera Science Center. In a court hearing about the Primera facility, a Hendry lawyer compared the county’s approval of a new primate facility to that of a new restaurant, in spite of the county’s knowledge that residents have grave concerns about the public safety, environmental and animal cruelty issues associated with primate facilities in their community. Indeed, we believe it is the fact that these facilities are so controversial that has led Hendry County to keep them hidden from the public in the first place. 

On March 22nd, Drones for Animal Defense took aerial footage of a monkey breeding facility in Hendry County that matches ARFF’s diagram showing Bioculture on a satellite image.

Bioculture and Primate Products are separate primate facilities on land that they lease from Panther Tracts, LLC

When Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) organizer Nicholas Shaw-Mcminn arrived at an upscale French restaurant in California to protest foie gras, he was not expecting to be attacked with a weapon by the restaurant manager. But you’d think he was, based on his thoughtful reaction that led to extensive media coverage exposing the atrocities of foie gras production.

Omar Haddedou, the manager of Le Vallauris in Palm Springs, attacks DxE activist Nicholas Shaw-Mcminn (photo: DxE)

DxE activists spoke out against foie gras cruelty from the Le Vallauris parking lot, which is in earshot of the restaurant’s outdoor seating.

Wayne Hsiung, a co-founder of DxE, commended Nick’s reaction: “Even as his face was being clubbed, Nick directly confronted the violence with camera in hand. He did not run. He did not strike back. He did not even curse. He calmly continued recording.”

https://youtu.be/p70lOMoSqfk

When asked by a reporter why he didn’t press charges against his assailant, Nick shifted the story to the animals, asserting that the pain he felt is something the animals experience every day: “We want to keep the attention on the animals and not make it just about me. Violent people are causing horrible harm to animals, and someone needs to be there to bring awareness and to try to end this violence.”

Nick is no stranger to being assaulted during a protest. In 2014, several staff members of BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse in San Bernadino, California, aggressively ejected him from the restaurant as he attempted – by  himself – to speak out on behalf of the animals who were being eaten.

https://youtu.be/byfAgqMaeKk

DxE’s Wayne Hsiung argues that the physical backlash experienced by Nick and many other activists serves to strengthen the animal rights movement: “The press coverage that results from these incidents has exposed hundreds of thousands of people to the plight of animals and has triggered activists around the world to ask us how they can participate in our non-violent, direct actions.”

After he was attacked in Palm Springs, Nick insisted that the protest continue, in spite of the fact that his face was battered: “These attacks only strengthen my resolve to fight for the animals.” As they were leaving the parking lot, the DxE activists encountered a man overcome with rage who frantically repeated, “Take George Soros and go!” — giving participants a second story to tell.  See for yourself:

https://youtu.be/p70lOMoSqfk?t=2m51s

To learn more about DxE and create or join a DxE group near you, please visit Direct Action Everywhere.