In the September 2001 issue of Fauna
News, we introduced you to the Laboratory Primate Advocacy Group (LPAG)
and mentioned that we would be telling you about useless and cruel
research. This is the first in a series of articles about
particular studies being conducted at Yerkes National Primate
Research Center.
by Diane Goodrich, Jessica
Ganas and Nancy Megna
Fall 2002 newsletter
Yerkes National Primate Research
Center is located in Atlanta, Georgia and was named after Dr.
Robert Yerkes, who, in the 1920s, began to study chimpanzees in
captivity. His studies contributed to our understanding of the
problem solving and social skills of our closest living relatives.
Other famous scientists have continued behavioural research of
chimpanzees at Yerkes, observing groups of socially housed
chimpanzees at Yerkes Field Station which is located on 117 acres
of wooded land. The most famous researcher who continues to
conduct behavioural research there is Frans de Waal, who has
written many popular books detailing chimpanzee social
intelligence. There are over 2,000 primates who now live on the
Field Station grounds, 60 of whom are chimpanzees. Their living
situations vary, some live in large social groups, others in
smaller social groups, and still others live alone. A statement
from the Yerkes website asserts, "The Yerkes National Primate
Research Center is committed to the conservation of non-human
primates."
So far, Yerkes doesn't sound so
bad, does it?
Well, there is another side to
Yerkes. Yerkes National Primate Research Center is one of eight
national primate research centers funded in large part by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services' National Institutes of
Health (NIH). The "Main Station" of Yerkes is located on the Emory
University campus in Atlanta, and here, between 1,100 and 1,200
primates of several different species are used in invasive
biomedical research. The pristine sounding Field Station serves as
a breeding ground and a supply house to provide monkeys for the
Main Station's biomedical research. This research has caused - and
continues to cause - pain and suffering for hundreds of thousands
of monkeys and chimpanzees. Still, Yerkes proudly states that the
primate populations are virtually "self-sustaining" and that each
year, births in the rhesus monkey colonies alone total about 300.
The rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta)
is the most common non-human primate used for biomedical research.
Rhesus macaques are native to eastern Afghanistan, Pakistan,
India, Nepal, and parts of China and Southeast Asia. The reason
for their heavy use in biomedical research is explained like this:
"Rhesus monkeys share about 93 percent of their genes with humans,
they are not endangered in the wild, and they adapt well to
captive housing."
Although they are not endangered,
past capture and export of rhesus macaques has led to wiping out
populations of these monkeys in certain areas of their natural
habitat. Adapting well to captive housing simply means that they
continue to breed, even in unnatural captive environments, unlike
many primate species. Monkeys are also preferred over chimpanzees
in most research because they are cheaper to house, and there are
no regulations or recommendations against killing them. So, many
studies call for monkeys to be "euthanized" when the study is
over, in order to gain further information.
Millions and millions of rhesus
monkeys have been used in research over the years. They were the
first species of primate to go into space, and they were the
monkeys subjected to the infamous studies on maternal deprivation
first conducted by psychologist, Harry Harlow. Through horrific
and repetitive experiments, the maternal deprivation studies
demonstrate how crucial maternal contact is for rhesus monkeys.
The outcome of the research was thousands of psychologically and
emotionally destroyed macaque babies and their mothers.
Current Research
This brings us to some research
currently being conducted at Yerkes. For well over 20 years,
Yerkes has been using rhesus monkeys to investigate visual
development. Fauna has learned of these studies, many of which
call for the use of infant macaques, through members of the
Laboratory Primate Advocacy Group (LPAG). The following,
information provided by Jessica and Nancy, two former employees of
Yerkes and current members of LPAG, is a description of how
infants are taken from their mothers at Yerkes.
Infants are permanently removed
from their mothers, usually within 3 days after their birth but
just as common is to see infants taken on the very day they were
born. Newborn infants cling tightly to their mothers, and macaques
mothers do not willingly give up their babies. To separate the
baby from its mother, the mothers are first trapped in a transfer
box, then moved to a "squeeze cage" which is a small wire cage
with a panel at the back that can be pulled forward by two
handles. This enables the technician to force the monkey to the
front of the cage, often causing the resistant mother's limbs,
body, and face to be crushed up against the thin metal bars. The
squeeze cages are equipped with leg holes, normally used to pull
the limb of an adult monkey through in order to give an injection
or perform a blood draw. In this case, the technician reaches into
the leg holes, grabs the tail or a limb of the baby monkey, and
pulls the clinging infant off the chest of his or her mother. If
she can, the mother continues to try to fight by holding onto her
baby, so the technician pulls even harder to remove the infant
research subject. Throughout this procedure, the mother is either
alarm barking or screaming, and the infant is often screaming as
well. Both mother and infant will defecate because of the stress
and fear.
The infant, often with the
placenta still attached, is eventually removed through the leg
hole of the cage. It is then placed in a metal box with small
holes where he or she remains for the 45-minute car ride to the
Main Station. If the infant has been taken for a protocol which
studies the effects of light on eye development, he or she is
placed in what is called the "black box", a small box constructed
so that no light can enter. Infants are frequently fitted with
opaque contact lenses, goggles, or undergo surgery on their eyes
soon after their transfer to the Main Station. According to
several published papers of different vision studies at Yerkes,
for the first month after their capture, the infants are raised
in, "individual acrylic plastic isolettes" (incubators) in the
nursery.
After her baby has been taken
away, the mother is then either released back into her group or
back into her cage. Macaque mothers form firm attachments with
their young soon after birth, and research has shown (by
attempting to 'trick' new mothers by switching infants) that they
can distinguish their own babies from other infants even in the
first few days of their babies' lives. When a mother's baby has
been taken from her at Yerkes, she can be seen visibly mourning
for 1-3 days. She emits either lost calls, waiting in vain for a
response from her stolen baby, or she makes a mourning type of
crying vocalization. She does this constantly, sometimes sitting
far from the group at the edge of the compound, sometimes sitting
near the door to her indoor quarters, looking in. When she sees a
Yerkes' vehicle drive by, her calls become even more persistent.
If an employee walks by, the mother will often follow along the
whole distance of the fence of her enclosure, looking directly at
the employee as she emits her lost call. Babies too make plaintive
lost calls, in hopes of being reunited with their mother. This
traumatic experience may happen repeatedly, with mothers losing
baby after baby to the hands of researchers.
The story does not end here. The
studies that the infants are used in will be described in future
Fauna News newsletters. You will be amazed at the number of
monkeys that are used in these types of studies, the amount of US
taxpayer money that goes towards funding this research, the
careers that are supported by this money, and the triviality of
the findings.
If you have already heard enough
and you feel, like we do, that no research justifies how these
monkeys are treated, please contact:
Dr. Stuart Zola
Director, Yerkes National Primate Research Center
954 Gatewood Road
Atlanta, GA 30322
404-727-7844 phone
