The video released by animal rights group PETA reveals, for the first time, filmed experiments at the University of Washington’s National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC). After prenatal exposure to a neurotoxin, newborn monkeys were subjected to neurological tests to investigate whether exposure to domoic acid in the womb had damaged their brains. With electrodes attached to their heads, the baby monkeys appear distressed as they clutch blankets, suck their fingers, screech, and jerk as experimenters shave their heads and test their reflexes and memory. The monkeys were killed after the experiments were concluded.
THE GUARDIAN: Footage released by the animal-rights group Peta reveals, for the first time, filmed experiments at the University of Washington’s National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC), in which newborn monkeys were separated from their mothers and subjected to neurological tests after prenatal exposure to a neurotoxin.
Records show that the infant monkeys, some just two days old, were used in research on domoic acid, a toxin produced by marine algae that accumulates in shellfish and can cause illness in humans. The experiments were part of a project that ran for six years until 2020.
The footage shows monkeys with electrodes attached to their heads, undergoing tests to investigate whether exposure to domoic acid in the womb had damaged their brains. The baby monkeys appear distressed as they clutch blankets, suck their fingers, screech, and jerk as experimenters shave their heads and test their reflexes and memory.
The infant macaques were bred at the University of Washington’s Infant Primate Research Laboratory for the project researching the developmental neurotoxicity of domoic acid in nonhuman primates. Researchers administered doses of domoic acid daily to 32 pregnant macaques. After birth, 28 infants were removed from their mothers, bottle-fed and kept in incubators before being housed individually at three weeks old.
“These monkeys are so young they still have the distinctive black fur of newborn macaques, yet instead of clinging to their mothers, they grasp blankets on metal tables,” says Peta’s chief science adviser on primate issues, Dr Lisa Jones-Engel…
Although the domoic acid research ended in 2020, records show that the WaNPRC continued to breed, purchase and use monkeys, including infants, to study viruses such as Epstein-Barr and HIV… The project ran from 2014 to 2020 and received more than $4.2m in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. Some experiments lasted years. According to PETA, the monkeys were killed after the experiments were concluded. SOURCE
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