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Vegan US Senator Cory Booker has introduced a bill to try and curb experiments on monkeys.
The Primate Protection and Research Modernization Act of 2018 seeks to ‘prevent unnecessary and unethical animal testing practices on primates’ in the United States.
According to Cruelty Free International, the US is one of the world’s top users of monkeys for experiments. 75,825 non-human primates were used in 2017, representing an increase in 4, 637 primates over the previous year.
The organization describes the suffering monkeys undergo in experiments as ‘shocking’, saying they are ‘forced to inhale cigarette smoke, being addicted to alcohol or cocaine, and having their brains or livers deliberately damaged’.
Monkey suffering
“This legislation seeks to eliminate unethical and unnecessary testing on primates and would make any new testing on primates a last resort when necessary for the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of life-threatening human diseases,” said Senator Cory Booker said.
“The level of suffering that these intelligent and social animals are subjected to in US experiments is shocking,” Dr. Jarrod Bailey, Cruelty Free International’s Senior Research Scientist – whose paper on the topic was cited in the bill – said in a statement.
“There are more humane and scientifically superior alternatives to using monkeys in experiments, including those aiming to find treatments and cures for many diseases.
“Both the monkeys used in cruel experiments, and the people waiting for science to deliver better treatments for diseases, will benefit from the Primate Protection and Research Modernization Act.”
US residents can ask their US Senator to co-sponsor the Primate Protection and Research Modernization Act of 2018.
