LABS of Virginia - Inside the Monkey Farm

[Guest guest]

Please be sure to check out the on-line edition of the article 'Inside the

Monkey

Farm' located at http://www.mindspring.com/~scpoint/point/point/p04.html

 

The feature article, published in the Summer 2001 POINT, South Carolina's only

independent newspaper, provides an in-depth look at LABS of Virginia, which

operates three primate research and breeding centers in South Carolina.

 

**Parental Warning** - The article includes gruesome photos of decaying

monkey corpses and skull, littering LABS of Virginia's Morgan Island.

 

 

INSIDE THE MONKEY FARM

BY BECCI ROBBINS

 

 

Selected excerpts from the article:

 

--- " Among Bionetics' corporate satellites is LABS of Virginia, Inc., which

operates

three primate research and breeding centers in South Carolina-one in Yemassee,

another six miles away in Early Branch, and a third on Morgan Island, some 400

wild acres in the St. Helena Sound where the company maintains colonies of

rhesus

macaques. "

 

 

--- " Today, LABS is the next best thing to invisible: it is impenetrable. When

approached

for an interview in 1993, a LABS spokesperson declined. " I hate to be cagey, "

said

Dr. James Vickers, " but experience has shown us that when we deal with the media

we always lose. " .... When contacted more recently, Dr. Greg Westergaard said it

was

against LABS' policy to speak to the press. "

 

 

--- " During the second week of January 2000, LABS was on trial in the Hampton

County courthouse. The four days of testimony and parade of exhibits offered a

rare

look into the primate trade and the inner workings of one of its top dealers. "

 

 

--- [Patrick Mehlman reported in an internal memorandum] " (Darmawan) stresses

that we need a scientific angle on all this, and I make it clear that if we do

this deal,

we would be interested in training his vets. (so we) could have a profile that

is

somewhat 'green' and also try to pursue a conservation angle for both the

ethically

right reasons and to provide us some protection against animal rights people. "

 

 

--- " Why the need to greenwash? Seems Darmawan was stocking his colony with

wild-caught monkeys, which is illegal in his country. The practice was banned in

1994 - two years after 110 monkeys died in transit from Inquatex to Worldwide

Primates in Miami. "

 

 

--- " Mehlman said he worried about catching heat for " engaging in

anticonservation

behavior " and " violating the spirit of the CITES convention. " The Convention on

International Trade in Endangered Species drew up a treaty in 1973 to protect

wildlife

against exploitation and extinction, an agreement today supported by 152

countries. "

 

 

--- " The monkeys' journey began in Rumpin, where they were taken from their

cages,

sorted and crated, and loaded into trucks for the 45-km. drive to Jakarta. There

they

were loaded onto a plane for a 17-hour flight to Paris. After clearing customs,

they

were loaded onto another plane for a nine-hour flight to O'Hare, where they were

again

processed. For the final leg, the monkeys were trucked 900 miles from Chicago to

South Carolina. "

 

 

--- " In March, Darmawan sent a memo warning Mehlman that the second shipment

would include some pregnant monkeys and nursing infants-a violation of the U.S.

law which bans importing unweaned animals except for emergency medical care.

" For me it is OK, " Darmawan said. " However I want you to make a statement of

full

responsibility just in case anythings happen with the shipment. If you insist to

make

this shipment, it will be completely at your risk. " It is a risk LABS was

willing to

take. Repeatedly. "

 

 

--- " That Dec. 10 report also addressed a complaint about mortality rates of

monkeys

shipped from Indonesia. It confirmed that in February 1997 there were 81 deaths

out

of a total of 220 cynos shipped (37 percent). In April, 97 out of 253 monkeys

died

(38 percent). And in June, 66 of 253 died (26 percent). "

 

 

--- " Another LABS employee said his six months on Morgan Island in 1997

changed his mind about animal-based research. " After working there, as a result

of that experience, I'm totally against using animals in laboratory

experiments. " He

now teaches psychology at a college in Ohio. "