PETA Scuttles Charles River’s Plans for a Huge Monkey Prison

Charles River Laboratories, a multibillion-dollar company and the largest importer of monkeys into the U.S., buckled under pressure from PETA and Brazoria County, Texas, residents and scrapped its plans to build what would have been the largest monkey warehouse in the Western Hemisphere. The prison was to have caged up to 43,000 primates, all destined for torment in laboratories. The plan would have had nearly incalculable repercussions for already-endangered monkey populations worldwide, risked spreading disease throughout the country, and spelled ecological disaster for the local residents. Locals had alerted PETA to the scheme in 2023, and we immediately took action to inform residents, mailing out 4,000 letters. Community members turned out in droves to object at a Brazoria County Board of Commissioners’ meeting, where the panel unanimously recommended that federal authorities axe the proposal. PETA also spoke at the meeting, met with officials and local environmental groups, ran a billboard in Brazoria County, sent out a video explaining the potential dangers of the facility, and produced a pair of online action alerts—one to urge county commissioners to axe the plan and another that prompted 50,000 actions by supporters.