PETA Scientist, Local Experts to Team Up at Town Hall, Expose Dangers of Proposed Primate Prison

For Immediate Release:
March 20, 2024

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Primate scientist and PETA Senior Science Advisor Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel will speak at a community town hall meeting on Thursday, joining local environmental, agricultural, and business experts who will discuss the threats posed by a plan to build the largest monkey warehouse in the country, capable of holding 30,000 primates.

When:    Thursday, March 21, 7–9 p.m.

Where:     Charles H. Kirbo Regional Center, 2500 E. Shotwell St., Bainbridge

Safer Human Medicine hopes to import, breed, and warehouse monkeys destined to be poisoned, mutilated, and killed in laboratory experiments, which are already driving the extinction of the species the company would be importing.

Other speakers will include Flint Riverkeeper Executive Director Gordon Rogers; Steve Sykes, former city manager of Thomasville; as well as residents Jan Jones, Melinda Taylor, and Elise Boyd. They will address the expected negative impacts of the proposed facility on the environment, the farming community, the city of Bainbridge, and the area’s investment opportunities.

“Warehousing tens of thousands of monkeys in Bainbridge poses a threat to humans, animals, and the environment,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “Local officials didn’t do their homework when they approved the plan, and now they need to stop this dangerous proposal in its tracks.”

Jones-Engel will also brief residents on the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) prosecution of a Cambodian government official on monkey-smuggling charges. The DOJ indictments revealed an alleged monkey-laundering scheme in which thousands of monkeys were taken from the wild and sold as captive-bred to U.S. importers. The trial is taking place now in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami.

Safer Human Medicine, the company behind the planned facility, is led by former executives from monkey importers Envigo, Charles River Laboratories, and Covance—all of which have faced federal investigations and citations for repeated violations of animal welfare laws.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.