Final Adios To Bioculture Monkey Farm-For-Research

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UPDATE: Supreme Court Boots Bioculture Out Of Puerto Rico For Good

1/18/12: In an ultimate adios to Bioculture, Inc.’s monkey breeding farm, a Puerto Rico Supreme Court upheld prior rulings from lower courts. The commonwealth’s highest court agreed that Bioculture constructed its Guayama facility illegally and therefore cannot operate. The court even denied a motion for consideration, "making this the final blow to Bioculture’s plan to capture more than 4,000 monkeys from Mauritius, confine them to cages in Guayama, and then sell their offspring for use in painful and deadly experiments at notorious facilities abroad, such as Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, Charles River Laboratories, Pfizer, and Covance," Carribean News Now reports.

10/11/11: Job-well-done to Kinship Circle activists, along with voices worldwide, that fought to keep Bioculture, a supplier of primates for research, out of Puerto Rico. We repeatedly asked officials to stop construction of a compound in Guayama City. More than a year since a lower court first decided to terminate the monkey-breeding project – but an Appeals Court overrode that decision and let Biocluture build – the Puerto Rico Court of Appeals has definitively ruled that Bioculture may NOT proceed.

2010 Amid allegations of improper applications and permits, Bioculture forged ahead with plans to seize 4,000 long-tailed macaques to breed and sell for research. But Guayama Mayor Glorimari Jaime Rodriguez declared Bioculture's business unwelcome and the municipality okayed two ordinances to bar import, export, breeding and monkey use in research. A Senate Resolution from U.S. Sen. Melinda Romero Donnelly was initiated to urge U.S. Fish and Wildlife and USDA to refuse Bioculture permits or licenses for import or breeding of any animals.

2/9/10: Puerto Rico's Appeals Court rules to let construction of Bioculture's primate supplier farm proceed.

12/30/09: A Superior Court judge rules to terminate construction of the Bioculture's primate compound.

11/2009: A Puerto Rico Senate commission issues harsh citations against government agencies for inept oversight and states that Bioculture submitted deceptive information to acquire permits.

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Honorable Officials of Puerto Rico:

I am extremely disappointed to learn that construction of a monkey-breeding compound has resumed in Guayama. I understand Puerto Rico's Appeals Court ruled in late January to let primate supplier Bioculture build – despite a lower court's earlier decision to terminate this project.

Apparently, while the court considers Bioculture's appeal, the firm is free to proceed with plans that call for the seizure of long-tailed macaques from the wild. There is no indication when, or if, Bioculture will be held accountable for legal irregularities with its applications and permits that had stopped construction in the first place.

I once again ask Puerto Rico's leadership to take a stand against Bioculture or any similar firm that pointlessly breeds animal suffering. In-vitro cell technology, 3D cellular systems, computer automation and other innovations will eventually render animal research obsolete. Why not look forward, rather than into the past?

It does not serve human health to facilitate old-fashioned animal research. Primate experiments have failed to yield tangible data for AIDS, Alzheimer's, stroke, cancer, and other diseases. Companies such as Bioculture persevere for profit, not medical progress.

If completed, monkeys inside the Guayama facility will be separated from mothers and sold into a barren world of concrete and metal. In labs, they'll endure implanted brain electrodes, repeat surgeries, poisoning, and more.

Please consider strong public opposition to the breeding of monkeys for experimentation. Given the initial findings of Guayama's Superior Court, along with continuing negative publicity, I urge officials to support permanent cancellation of Bioculture's primate compound.

Thank you,

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ADDRESS, CITY, STATE
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Kinship Circle

In kinship, not dominion, each individual is seen. We do not use the rhetoric of slavery. To define animals as unique beings Guardian, Caregive, Him/Her/They… replace Owner, Own, It… Until moral equity and justice serve all — no one is free.