Video Shows Shocking Conditions At Primate Center

The UK’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) says it is shocked and appalled by a government decision to allow a breeding center in Mauritius to become a supplier of primates for research and testing in the UK.

The Society is calling for information on how such centers are assessed to be made publicly available.

Conditions at the Centre de Recherches Primatologiques (CRP) were heavily criticized by the Society last year after it obtained distressing video footage and photographs of monkeys in squalid and barren cages that appeared to fall far short of International Primatological Society guidelines on acceptable husbandry and care.

The RSPCA submitted a detailed report to the Home Office setting out these and many other concerns about the primate trade. The Society expressed serious concerns about the way such centres are assessed and the lack of information made available to the public.

Details of the minimum standards required by the UK Home Office are not published.

"We just do not know what standards the government applies and the RSPCA cannot therefore assess the scale of the problem," said Dr Penny Hawkins, deputy head of the RSPCA research animals department.

However, if the conditions shown in the Society’s undercover video footage (see More Information link) are in any way representative of breeding centers in general, then this provides a graphic illustration that standards are unacceptably low, the RSPCA said.

Many of the primate centers overseas capture animals from the wild for use as breeding animals. Taking these animals from the wild causes them a great deal of suffering and distress.

The use of wild caught primates for research was banned in the UK in 1995 after an RSPCA campaign. However, the majority of monkeys imported to the UK are the first generation offspring of wild caught primates while other countries still use wild caught animals.

The RSPCA stated that it is appalled that the trapping of wild primates and the housing of these intelligent and complex animals in cages, where they have little or nothing to do, could be considered acceptable by anyone, let alone the government.

Dr Penny Hawkins said: "The ultimate aim has to be to replace experiments on primates with humane alternatives. However until this is achieved, reducing the suffering associated with their breeding and supply must be an urgent and immediate priority for scientists, industry and the government."

© 2003 Animal News Center, Inc.