Harvard Med School Faculty Experiment on Alpha Genesis Monkeys; PETA Says Reconsider Ties
For Immediate Release:
December 19, 2024
Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382
In a letter sent today, PETA urges Harvard Medical School to reconsider its ties with Alpha Genesis, Inc. after uncovering information revealing that one of the school’s star experimenters routinely travels to the South Carolina facility from which 43 monkeys recently escaped.
PETA has discovered that Dan Barouch, an infectious disease experimenter, reportedly flies to Alpha Genesis regularly to experiment on monkeys there, despite the company’s long history of animal welfare violations. Alpha Genesis, which holds $19 million in National Institutes of Health contracts, is the subject of a 270-page complaint PETA recently filed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has launched an investigation into the serious allegations.
Alpha Genesis has a long history of Animal Welfare Act violations and escapes. Whistleblower information recently provided to PETA shows that Alpha Genesis monkeys were found dead in their enclosures from trauma, extreme temperatures, unsafe conditions, and undiagnosed health problems.
Records show one monkey was found dead of apparent hypothermia and dehydration after her head became stuck in a chain link fence. Another suffocated to death after being trapped under other monkeys. An infant monkey died after getting caught in a slide bolt lock, according to information provided to PETA. Other insiders say at least 20 monkeys recently died of hyperthermia when a diesel heater malfunctioned.
“We’re not sure what’s worse: that Harvard is doing business with Alpha Genesis, or that medical school officials apparently have no idea of the company’s many escapes and violations,” says PETA Vice President Dr. Alka Chandna. “Harvard should reconsider being so cozy with a company that has failed to protect so many monkeys.”
Records provided to PETA reveal an alarming number of incidents in which monkeys’ tails, fingers, or tongues were partially or completely severed. Monkeys also apparently died infected with zoonotic pathogens, which were allegedly not reported to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control as required.
Harvard Medical School is already facing scrutiny for the invasive and traumatizing experiments conducted in the laboratory of Margaret Livingstone, where infant monkeys are taken from their mothers and subjected to distortions of vision, including by putting strobe-effect goggles on them for more than a year.
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 PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
