More and more research labs are retiring rather than euthanizing monkeys at the end of studies

WESTFIELD, Wisconsin – Izzle, Timon, Batman, River and Mars spent years confined in a laboratory, their lives being spent testing for the sake of human health.

But these rhesus macaques have paid their dues and now live in retirement – in larger enclosures that let them venture out, eat lettuce and carrots, plunge their fingers into pools colored plastic, paint and hang on pipes and tires – in relative calm.

According to sanctuaries and researchers, more and more research labs are abandoning primates in sanctuaries like Primates Inc., a 17-acre rural community in central Wisconsin, where they will be able to live their remaining years. For some monkeys, it's their first time in fresh air.

"Just to see them looking around in amazement, you know everything was very quiet and peaceful," said Amy Kerwin, who worked for 15 years to establish the Westfield, Wisconsin shrine after being employed in a research from the University of Wisconsin Laboratory.

According to the most recent data available from the United States Department of Agriculture, there were about 110,000 primates in research facilities in 2017.

While most research facilities require the euthanasia of primates to examine their tissues, technological advances, such as brain scans, involve reducing the number of monkeys. In addition, researchers who are closer to animals do more to give those who can survive a retirement than euthanasia.

In 2015, a group of researchers, graduate students and an ethicist created the Research Animal Retirement Foundation. It raises funds for labs to pay sanctuaries for retirement. Up to now, they have awarded $ 33,000 to three monkeys who have gone to the Wisconsin Shrine.

A visit to the Sanctuary of Pacific Primates in Indiana convinced representative Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., To draft a bill introduced last month, in collaboration with Brendan Boyle, representative of D-Penn., Demanding that federal agencies develop an animals are no longer needed for research to be adopted or placed in sanctuaries. There is no federal regulation in force that dictates what happens to them. Some are even sold to other studies when a study is completed.

The bill does not address funding, one of the main obstacles to the entry of primates into retirement sanctuaries.

At the present time, grants awarded through the National Institutes of Health, which is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world, do not include money. for retirement. This leaves laboratories and sanctuaries to find the tens of thousands of dollars per monkey per year needed to maintain them.

The monkeys are finished with studies at different ages and some can live for decades. Some may also leave with persistent problems, such as compulsive behavior caused by boredom.

That's why many sanctuaries require labs to send funds, often between $ 10,000 and $ 20,000 apes, to help them heal and create space for them. Since many of these primates have only lived in laboratories, they do not have the survival skills needed to be released into the wild.

Chimpanzees, Capuchins and squirrel monkeys make up the majority of primates in accredited sanctuaries, according to Erika Fleury, program director of the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance, or NAPSA, a captive primate rights group. They come from research, the entertainment industry or private homes.

Chimpanzees are no longer used in most research. The NIH announced in 2013 that they would stop supporting them in research and that they should be transferred to sanctuaries with funding. He pointed out that a 2011 Institute of Medicine report had concluded that the use of chimpanzees in biomedical research was useless.

Cindy Buckmaster, president of the Americans for Medical Progress Association, which represents research universities and medical research companies, said researchers are worried about sanctuary standards, their financial viability and the whether some sanctuary links with animal rights groups would shame them. l & # 39; institution.

"We are really grateful to them and we want them to have a wonderful life afterwards," Buckmaster said. "They deserve it, but it must be done right and properly, because we will not put our animals in danger."

Some animal rights groups, such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, do not support research, but they strongly agree with the removal of monkeys from sanctuaries instead of have euthanized.

Shrines have existed for decades but, in 2010, more than half a dozen came together to create NAPSA.

Currently, there are eight sanctuaries members, with about 775 primates. Membership requires sanctuaries to be accredited by the USDA, accredited by the World Federation of Animal Sanctuaries or certified by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, among many guidelines. According to NAPSA, 31 other non-member sanctuaries in the United States and Canada have primates but apply a variety of standards.

In addition to demanding high standards for sanctuaries, NAPSA is also stepping up its efforts with researchers to encourage them to seek funding for their retirement from the start.

An NIH spokesperson did not want to know if the agency would consider adding money to the retirement care subsidies for monkeys, she simply stated in a statement. communicated that the owners of the animals are responsible for continuing care.

Kerwin, who opened the Wisconsin sanctuary, said he saw monkeys calm down in retirement. His goal is to have 100 monkeys over the next 20 years.

"The simple fact of knowing that these little individual personalities number in the thousands and that practically nobody knows them or even the need to help them.This is why I think it is important," he said. she said.