UW doesn’t invite people in to see the soul-crushing reality of the monkeys’ daily lives: the small, barren cages; the lack of natural light; the deafening sounds, as they endlessly pace or hurl themselves against the sides of the cages.
PETA: Experimenters at the University of Washington’s (UW) Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) seem to be feeling the pressure from the public, thanks to our recent video that provided the first-ever look inside this secretive laboratory. UW doesn’t invite people in to see the highly social and sensitive monkeys who are confined for years to cages the size of a kitchen cabinet. But the video blasted across social media platforms, local TV stations, and mobile billboards was recorded by the experimenters themselves just a few years ago. In the video, you see the soul-crushing reality of the monkeys’ daily lives: the small, barren cages; the lack of natural light; and the deafening sound of metal on metal as these desperate and profoundly distraught monkeys endlessly pace or hurl themselves against the sides of the cages.
In its desperation to excuse these horrors, the WaNPRC recently posted FAQs attempting to defend its caging and housing practices — but its “facts” are misleading, weak, and unconvincing. Perhaps the greatest irony is that for more than three decades, scientists at the WaNPRC have been publishing papers acknowledging that the cages and conditions that the monkeys are kept in have profound negative impacts on animal welfare and even distort experimental outcomes. A caged macaque is not a representative model for normal human physiology, immunology, or behavior.
In nature, macaques live in large groups, with rigorous hierarchies and an intense focus on social relationships. Infant macaques are adored, and female macaques remain in their birth group for life. Macaques will travel several miles a day through complex, diverse habitats where their intelligence, nimble fingers, and climbing and swimming abilities allow them to forage and explore for fruits, berries, nuts, leaves, insects, roots, buds, and more. When they stop during the day to rest, grooming is common among the adults while the younger animals play. At night, the troop returns to a favorite sleeping tree, where they find safety and comfort by huddling together. This extraordinary behavioral and ecological flexibility, matched only by our own, has allowed macaques to spread around the globe.
Adult male macaques are about the same size as a 2-year-old child. At the WaNPRC, macaques are confined alone to 3-foot-high cages with less than 6 square feet of floor space. A metal perch made of two steel bars is located a foot above the wire floor. They can turn around in the cages — and that’s about it. Female macaques, who are slightly smaller, are routinely separated from their infants shortly after birth. The only thing worse than being in a cage at the WaNPRC is being alone in a cage after your baby has been taken from you. It’s time to fact-check the WaNPRC’s claims about monkey housing and enrichment. SOURCE…
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