We cannot sanction primate exploitation

As a primatologist, I’d like to share some additional information with Herald readers relevant to the Monday article, “Playing a pivotal role.” Primates are highly intelligent animals with rich social and emotional lives. In the last year alone, scientists have reported that monkeys use sentences, grieve and seek comfort among friends after the death of a child, and possess an intrinsic sense of fairness. It’s simple to understand why life in the laboratory causes severe distress and suffering.

The sterile laboratory environment described by your reporter has many effects on the behavior and biology of primates. For example, articles in scientific journals suggest that about 90 percent of caged monkeys exhibit behavioral pathologies, many of which resemble symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Fifteen to 25 percent of caged monkeys engage in self-mutilation. I doubt that many of your readers would be surprised to learn that maternal deprivation, living alone in a cage, and experiencing frequent and intense experimental procedures make these tragic ailments all the more likely.

Furthermore, recent evidence from Princeton University indicated that the cage environment had major effects on primates. The researchers concluded that even the largest, most complex captive environment could amount to a deprived condition relative to the natural environment. Therefore, they determined, captive monkeys’ brains and behavior might not be normal at all.

Given all that we know about primates, we must also realize that life in a laboratory is at the very least uncomfortable and distressing; at times, it is also unsafe, painful and frightening for the animals who are forced to live there. As ethical beings and as people who have a fuller understanding of the minds, emotions and lives of all primates, we simply cannot sanction their exploitation.

Debra Durham, Ph.D.

Primate Specialist

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

Lynnwood