43 Escaped South Carolina Monkeys Could Harbor Disease, Reportedly Government-Owned: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
November 7, 2024

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Primate Scientist Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel regarding the escape of 43 monkeys from South Carolina primate experimenter Alpha Genesis:

Don’t believe monkey experimenter Alpha Genesis: so-called “SPF” or “specific pathogen free” monkeys in U.S. laboratories routinely have outbreaks of tuberculosis, MRSA, bacterial pathogens that can cause dysentery, herpes B, simian retroviruses, highly pathogenic E. coli, malaria, Chagas, Listeria, and more. Insiders tell us these monkeys are owned by the National Institutes of Health, which pays Alpha Genesis to confine and experiment on them. But even government-supported primate laboratories are chronically understaffed and poorly trained because few people are willing to collaborate in the ongoing imprisonment and abuse of monkeys. Deprived of all that matters to them, these monkeys were leading a miserable existence—and now the 43 scared, cold, and hungry monkeys are on the loose. The monkey experimentation industry has consistently failed to improve human health, and instead their actions continue to put the public at risk. NIH must end its funding for experiments on monkeys and Alpha Genesis must be shut down now.

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