Animal protection organizations across the world have launched a campaign calling on the government of Puerto Rico to stop the construction of a major monkey farm following reports that the monkeys will be supplied to the international research industry, in particular in the U.S., which is the world’s largest user of primates in research. It is understood that the farm in Guayama will be established using macaques (Macaca fascicularis) from the island of Mauritius.
The groups, including the BUAV (British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection), the IPPL (International Primate Protection League), and PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine), believe that such a proposal is highly controversial and a major step backwards at a time when the ethical and scientific use of nonhuman primates in research is being challenged internationally by scientists as well as others. The cruelty and suffering involved in the international trade in primates for research has been well documented. The common fate of many primates in the research industry is to be used in toxicity testing which involves the forced ingestion, inhalation or injection of potentially lethal and poisonous chemicals.
It should be noted that, because of previous U.S. experimentation centers established in Puerto Rico in the 60s and 70s, two species of primates currently thrive on the island of Puerto Rico: rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) and patas monkeys (Erythrocebus patas). Both species originated from the La Parguera Primate Facility, which was administered by the Caribbean Primate Research Center of the University of Puerto Rico’s Medical Sciences Campus from 1961 until 1982 through a contract with the Food and Drug Administration. Primates were introduced to Isla Cueva and Isla Guayacán, off the southwest coast near Guánica. In 1974, the Center began to increase the number of breeding female rhesus monkeys to supply animals for the Sabin Poliomyelitis Virus Vaccine Program. Patas monkeys were introduced to the peninsulas between 1971 and 1981.
During this time, an unknown number of monkeys of both species escaped into the regions of Sierra Bermeja, Lajas, Cabo Rojo, and San German. La Parguera Primate Facility, where monkeys also underwent experimentation with various drugs and substances (such as cannabis sativa), ceased operating in 1982, but many monkeys had already escaped to the main island. During the last 20 years, the escapees and their progeny have continued to cause problems in the area, plaguing farmers and worrying public health and environmental officials.
For full article on breeding farms, see http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/news-16815–21-21–.html
For more information on how to help stop this and similar projects, see http://www.eceae.org/alerts.php?p=502&more=1
Photo of a rhesus monkey (Caribbean Primate Center) from http://pharmacy.osu.edu/academics/bsps/bsps_study-abroad.cfm
Information on P.R. monkey experimentation, http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EiD/vol10no3/03-0257.htm