Charges Filed Against U.S.-Funded Colombian Monkey Lab: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
May 23, 2023

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Cali, Colombia –

Please see the following statement from PETA Lead Projects Manager Dr. Magnolia Martínez regarding the charges filed on May 19 against the Caucaseco Scientific Research Center and its affiliated facility Primate Center Foundation in Cali, Colombia, by a regional environmental authority. Following the release of PETA’s investigation in January, Colombian authorities seized 108 monkeys and 180 mice and closed the facilities. Caucaseco has operated with millions of dollars from the National Institutes of Health, which has still not cut off this funding.

The U.S. government should be ashamed for lagging so far behind Colombian officials, who have taken swift action to shut down the filthy laboratories funded by NIH that PETA exposed. Now, Colombia’s environmental agency, Corporación Autónoma Regional del Valle del Cauca, has filed formal charges against the Caucaseco Scientific Research Center and the Primate Center Foundation for not having permits to experiment on monkeys, not having permits to use these animals or obtain any products from them, not having permits to capture squirrel monkeys, and doing “harm to wildlife.” Criminal charges may follow.

While Colombian authorities raided the facilities, dismantled the organization, and liberated the captive animals in the largest animal rescue operation of this kind in Colombia’s history, NIH has refused to cut off the flow of U.S. taxpayer funds to Caucaseco. The agency is a disgrace and should, like the decrepit Colombian laboratories PETA exposed, be dismantled.

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