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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.

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

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.

As efforts to build new monkey labs and breeding facilities in the U.S. have increased during the past several months, activist groups have taken to the streets, the courtroom and the internet in an effort to block them. Tensions are running high. Following are just a few of the battles being waged by activists on behalf of the monkeys.

FLORIDA
Officials in Hendry County, Florida, already home to two monkey breeding facilities, have approved the construction of two more without soliciting feedback from area residents, a move that violates the state’s Sunshine Law. Florida’s Sunshine Law requires municipalities to hold public hearings on projects that impact local communities. The Animal Legal Defense Fund has filed a lawsuit against Hendry County on behalf of angry residents.

Monkey breeding facility (Photo: Alon Ron, Haaretz)

Jane Velez-Mitchell of JaneUnchained recently traveled from New York to Florida to report on a court hearing on the case and the civil strife that accompanied it: “Watch as I try to get a comment from Hendry County’s lawyer, and see dozens of angry local residents swarm the county offices demanding answers!”

WASHINGTON
In November, The University of Washington decided to expand its primate research center to increase the number of monkeys it could accommodate. Activists with Campus Animal Rights Educators and No New Animal Lab have been fighting to stop the expansion, pointing to USDA citations, the deaths of several monkeys, including one from starvation, and evidence of a monkey who was euthanized after repeatedly harming himself.

On March 8th, Activists with No New Animal Lab drop a banner over a highway in Seatle

Michael Budkie, President of the anti-vivisection group Stop Animal Exploitation NOW, says that the monkeys are highly stressed by captivity: “I can’t conceptualize the actual mental state of an animal that is so disturbed and mentally abnormal to literally be biting off pieces of his own fingers.”

Monkeys, who are highly social animals, are driven insane by lab experiments and intensive confinement

MARYLAND
Since 1980, NIH researchers have used public funds to conduct maternal deprivation and isolation studies on infant monkeys. Video footage of the experiments is so disturbing that four members of Congress sent a letter to the NIH, which is based in Maryland, demanding an explanation. When the lead researcher, Stephen Suomi, made a presentation at the University of Michigan, activists disrupted his remarks four times to raise awareness of his barbaric experiments.

In a fascinating interview with Justin Goodman, PETA’s Director of Laboratory Investigations, Jane Velez-Mitchell shines a spotlight on Suomi’s studies and the deception that has enabled NIH researchers to spend 30 years and tens of millions of U.S. tax dollars on these experiments that have done nothing to improve human health.

NIH maternal deprivation study

The plight of animals in society is often ignored by the mainstream media. Given the enormity of the problem, the issues don’t receive the attention they deserve. That is what prompted Jane Velez-Mitchell to launch her own initiative to be the media for animals – JaneUnChained. But doing it on her own is unsustainable over the long term. Please see how you can help her be a permanent voice for the animals.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) has filed a lawsuit against a county in Central Florida for failing to hold a public hearing about the construction of a 32 acre monkey breeding facility.

Hendry County, FL

In a statement to the press, Hendry County claims that seeking public input for an “agriculture” facility is not required by law. Some locals suspect that the County intentionally kept the project a secret, knowing that members of the public would oppose the presence of monkeys who could carry infectious diseases in residential area. Florida already has a population over 1,000 non-native wild macaques, many of whom carry the hepatitis B virus, according to published reports.

Primera and SoFlo Ag cannot be reached

Primera Science Center, the company building the breeding center, reportedly intends to transport 3,200 macaque monkeys from Mauritius, an island off the coast of Africa, to Florida, where they will be bred and sold to laboratories for use in experiments. The macaques, who will presumably have direct contact with workers, can carry infectious diseases like tuberculosis and hepatitis.

Photo: buav.org

Dwight Bullard, the State Senator who represents the area, has called for the project to be delayed until Primera and Hendry County provide more information about how public safety will be protected: “We are calling on Primera to hold a public meeting with the state and federal agencies that will be involved in the safety and care of these primates during their time at this facility. If primates get loose, what does that mean to the surrounding counties in terms of potential outbreaks?”

In a statement to the press, Primera says it “is in full compliance with the rules, guidelines and laws at the local, state and federal levels” and that it “is committed to meeting the highest standards with the utmost respect for the safety and preservation of the surrounding environment and its residents.”

To see the lawsuit in its entirety and the statement released by Hendry County in response to the suit, please visit news-press.com.

Please ask Hendry County officials to halt the construction of Primera’s monkey breeding facility until the County and company provide the public with an answers to its questions and gives local residents the opportunity to provide input at a public hearing.

Phone: 863-675-5220

Email: welcome@hendryfla.net