At least 43 rhesus macaques escaped last week from a research facility in South Carolina, USA, after a caretaker accidentally failed to secure the gate to their enclosure. The incident has brought into focus once again the plight of monkeys captured and/or bred for biomedical research.
Until yesterday, 32 of the simians had been recaptured, but 11 are still out in the woods surrounding the research facility in Yemassee, according to a CBS News report. The report, quoting Greg Westergaard, chief executive officer of Alpha Genesis, said both newly-trapped monkeys were healthy and enjoying a meal of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Froot Loops were “planned for dessert”, he said.
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Westergaard told the television channel that none of the rhesus macaques recaptured thus far showed signs of “ill effects from their adventure” and all continued “to do well”. The monkeys do not have many food sources in the woods outside and while they continued to gambol in the trees, according to a CBS News 24/7 reporter, they were eventually being recaptured by the simple expedient of laying out food, including fruit, on the ground in a trail that leads into traps.
The escape has brought Alpha Genesis under scrutiny from animal rights activists, and a South Carolina Congresswoman criticized the facility for negligence and alleged that it has performed harmful experiments on monkeys for years.
Representative Nancy Mace, Republican, whose South Carolina jurisdiction includes Yemassee, wrote to animal welfare officials at the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, raising concerns about operations at the research facility in light of the monkeys’ escape. She said the laboratory received $19 million in federal funding just this year “to breed, confine, and experiment on primates at its facilities in South Carolina”. Mace said records showed the monkeys were subjected to “painful and deadly experiments”.
“While in the care of Alpha Genesis, monkeys have frozen to death, died of dehydration, and been killed by other distressed primates,” Mace wrote in her letter and sought a briefing on the situation.
Meanwhile, Born Free USA, a leading animal nonprofit, called upon Alpha Genesis to work with its team to rehome the monkeys at the charity’s sanctuary in South Texas. Born Free USA is a global leader in animal welfare and conservation and operates one of the largest accredited primate sanctuaries in the USA. The sanctuary is home to more than 200 monkeys rescued from exploitative situations, such as labs, zoos, and the pet trade.
