Jane Velez-Mitchell Goes After Florida’s Cruel Monkey Dealers
Investigative reporter Jane Velez-Mitchell says that officials in Hendry County, Florida, are “secretly trying to turn Hendry County into a monkey breeding capital of America.”
So Jane is working with PETA and other animal-protection groups to stop them.
Hendry County is currently home to three facilities that import, warehouse, breed, and sell primates for use in experiments. A PETA investigation of one, Primate Products International, found that workers grabbed monkeys by their tails, crudely shoved protruding internal tissues back into monkeys’ anuses, held them upside down and shook them, and allowed untrained staff to perform crude and cruel invasive surgeries on them, often without adequate painkillers.
The ongoing animal rights battle in Hendry County, known as “Monkeygate,” was a major issue facing the board of commissioners when it met. Jane and other PETA supporters protested outside and then attended the meeting to demand that the county honor the wishes of its constituents and local zoning ordinances and shutter the abusive facilities.