Plan to breed lab monkeys splits Puerto Rican town
30-11-2009 By JILL LASTER, The Associated Press
GUAYAMA, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico has such a bad history with research monkeys running amok, some residents are stunned that its territorial government has approved a plan to import and breed thousands of primates for sale to U.S. researchers.
In this July 29, 2008 file photo, rhesus macaque monkeys groom one another on Cayo Santiago, known as Monkey Island, off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico. The 37-acre island is a behavioral research and breeding colony for the monkeys, some of which are sold to laboratories. Puerto Rico has a long history with imported research monkeys, some of which escape, reproduce and run amok, thus some local Puerto Ricans are surprised that the local government has embraced a new plan to import thousands of primates to a different facility than the one pictured, and breed them for sale to U.S. researchers. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)
Bioculture Ltd., with facilities at 19 sites around the world, has secured permits to begin operating next summer in Guayama, a small, depressed mountain district in southeastern Puerto Rico. They want to turn the Caribbean territory into a major supplier of primates, much to the dismay of islanders already dealing with a plague of patas monkeys — descendants of lab escapees that run though backyards, stop traffic and destroy crops.
The company, based in the African island nation of Mauritius, says the operation will employ at least 50 people and buy fruit from local farmers, an important consideration on an island where unemployment is nearly 16 percent.
"This will help many people in the community," said Olga Colon, a local school principal who has collected 300 signatures in support of the facility. She said Bioculture has pledged to buy supplies for her school.
In this Dec. 4, 2008 file photo, a non-native monkey stares out from his cage at a ranger station used for animal control in the Cambalache Forest in Puerto Rico.
(AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)
But the project is opposed by everyone from Guayama Mayor Glorimari Jaime to Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro, who says it's unethical to breed monkeys for research, and renowned primatologist Jane Goodall.
In this Nov. 4, 2009 photo, renowned primatologist Jane Goodall speaks at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)
"We know now that monkeys have minds, personalities, and, above all, they have feelings," Goodall said during a recent visit to Puerto Rico. "What we do for monkeys in medical research — if you were a monkey, it would be torture."
Local residents have filed a lawsuit supported by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that says Bioculture failed to submit a full environmental impact statement or hold public hearings.
They say Bioculture allegedly paid fees for a $2 million project, when the project costs $12 million. The company denies the allegations.
A judge could decide as early Monday whether to order an injunction to halt construction. Either side could appeal the ruling to the state Court of Appeals.
Bioculture's facility, the first in a U.S. jurisdiction, plans to start with 1,000 Crab-eating Macaques, natives of Southeast Asia, and eventually hold up to 3,000.
Puerto Rico has long struggled to control hundreds of patas monkeys, descendants of primates that escaped in recent decades from research projects and now thrive in the lush tropical environment.
In this Dec. 4, 2008 file photo, a non-native monkey in a cage reaches for a slice of potato at a ranger station used for animal control in the Cambalache Forest in Puerto Rico. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)
No labs want the patas monkeys because they're no longer right for research, and many are diseased. There isn't much demand from zoos, either. So rangers from the island's Department of Natural Resources trap and kill them.
Wilson Nazario Torres fears the people of Guayama will suffer like those in his hometown, Lajas, which has been overrun by patas monkeys. The three that live in his back yard are so used to humans, he can't scare them away.
"If this project was offered in any state in the United States, they wouldn't allow it," said Roberto Cintron, a 46-year-old resident of Carmen, a Guayama neighborhood close to the facility site. "So they come to an isolated community, a neglected community, and offer jobs, and people buy it."
Bioculture Vice President Moses Mark Bushmitz said some groups are just trying to stir up panic. It happens at all new facilities.
The Guayama facility is one of many already inside the United States, he said, where about 70,000 research monkeys were used in 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The company assures people in Carmen and all of the Guayama district that its monkeys can't escape multiple levels of security.
"You have monkeys in MIT, you have monkeys in Harvard," Bushmitz said. "So why isn't it an issue if the monkey will escape in Harvard, but it is an issue if a monkey will escape in Carmen?"
Bushmitz called the protesters a small minority.
"This area was neglected for so many years," he said. "The people here have no chance. The young guys have no work."
But Carla Cappalli, a spokeswoman for the local PETA chapter, says opponents will keep fighting, no matter what the judge rules.
"This is going to be a long case," she said. "We're going to fight this to the end."
(Bron & foto's: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jHMx0jjch8RpdLLovXvzMdq4e0UAD9C9MP001)
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