PRO-PRIMATE
"ARGUMENT"
This is rather long but well worth the reading.
The Argument In the late 1950's researchers came back from a tour in the Soviet Union. While there, they visited the Soviet’s primate research facility. These scientists became alarmed that the Soviet Union was ahead of us in the biomedical race. Their trip seems have led to James Watt, director of the National Institutes of Health, testifing before Congress about the need for a similar program in the United States if we were not to be left behind. At that time, nearly 45 years ago, our understanding of primates was very limited and naive. Philosophers and ethicists of the time believed that the gulf between humans and other animals was wide and clearly defined: Only humans made, modified, and used tools. Only humans possessed language. Only humans possessed culture. Only humans participated in systematic warfare. Only humans could exhibit altruistic behavior. Only humans pondered death and participated in religious ritual. Monkeys and apes, while they might be something like us in appearance and biology were nothing like us inside, in heart and mind. Today we know that those philosophers and ethicists were completely wrong. Tool use in primates was first discovered in 1960 by Jane Goodall . Since that time we have learned that chimpanzees use an assortment of tools. Examples of meta-tool use, using a tool to modify or improve another tool, have been documented. Capuchins, a new world species of monkey, are known tools users as well; and macaques, an old world group, readily learn to operate computer joysticks in laboratories. Almost 30 years ago people began to search for ways to communicate with apes and monkeys. They wondered whether real language use was even possible for non-humans. Today, many chimpanzees have been taught American Sign Language and have been engaging in dialog with humans. From these conversations it is now clear that their perceptions of the world are nearly identical to ours. They combine words to coin new expressions for novel situations and objects which we fully understand. An example of this is a chimpanzee signing, fruit drink when inventing a name for Kool Aid. Chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and gorillas have all been found to be adept at learning human language. To date, few humans have come close to learning a non-human primate language. Noam Chompsky once criticized the research in sign language saying that if chimpanzees were capable of a gestural language they would be using one in the wild. He believed that this put the matter to rest, but since then we have learned that chimpanzees do use such a language in the wild. The discovery that chimpanzees use a gestural language in the wild has contributed to the understanding that culture is passed from generation to generation. Language and tool use are both used in unique ways between different chimpanzee groups. The knowledge of how to use a specific tool and specific gestures is learned and transmitted between generations. Rhesus macaques use at least 18 different words or phrases (calls) in the wild, but when raised in captivity, a culturally deprived setting, they learn only five or six. It has been known for eons that animals will sometimes fight with each other, but systematic warfare was considered a uniquely human trait. It is now known that chimpanzees sometimes engage in long term aggression with neighboring groups and will systematically murder each member of the "enemy" group. This is accomplished through a band of mostly males silently searching for isolated members of the rival community and killing them. Such campaigns can last months on end with frequently repeated excursions into the rivals’ territory. Altruism has long been a bastion of human uniqueness, but the frequency of adoption of orphaned babies in chimpanzee society is high. Chimpanzees are well known for their willingness to put themselves at risk to aid a friend. Gorillas will defend their group members to the death. People observing chimpanzees in the wild have been given food by them. And who did not read of the child saved at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago by Binti Jua , the captive lowland gorilla? During a particularly violent lightning storm, Jane Goodall observed a group of chimpanzees repeatedly run down a hill one at a time brandishing a branch. After running down the hill screaming and waving the branch each chimpanzee would climb back up to repeat the performance. The group continued this ritual until the electrical storm had passed. Had an anthropologist observed the same phenomena while studying a tribe of humans she would have likely believed it to be a religious rite. When asked what happens to you when you die, a gorilla answered in sign, "Dark. Ground." Today, in biomedical laboratories around the world, monkeys and apes are treated as if the past years of study mean nothing. The ethical and moral implications of what we now know about the similarities between human and non-human primates are ignored and suppressed by the National Institutes of Health and the primate labs themselves. The Oregon Regional Primate Research Center: Oline K. Ronnekleiv is administering cocaine to pregnant mothers and unborn fetuses. He has discovered that chronic cocaine use causes brain damage. (Project number: 5 P51 RR00163 -38). Miles Novy " . . . studies . . . unanesthetized chronically catheterized maternal-fetal preparations . . . ". He wants to know how hormone levels change during pregnancy in rhesus macaques and baboons. (Project number: 5 R37 HDO6159 -25). Washington Regional Primate Research Center: Marnix L. Bosch has learned that HIV and SIV have, " . . . important biological differences." This was discoverd by infecting rhesus and pigtailed macaques. They were infected both orally and rectally. (Project number: 2 P51 RR00166 -36). Virginia M. Gunderson has recieved a Scientist Development Award to " . . . gain expertise. . . [and], . . . acquire the skills to attain her career goals." She is injecting chemicals into the brains of very young pigtailed macaques to try to induce seizures. New England Regional Primate Research Center: Janice H. Kinsey designed a database to keep records on the large population of individually housed monkeys. She gathered data on the amount of various behaviors such as: ". . .pacing, bouncing, rocking, . . . self-biting, grasping, and hair pulling." She learned that 10% of the center’s monkeys bite themselves. [Sometimes they chew off fingers, tail tips and chew holes in their arms that require veterinary care.] ( PN # 5 P51 RR00168 -36). Alyssa Rulf Fountain, studying self-injurious behavior (SIB) such as self-biting, reports that, ". . . the causes are largely unknown." ( PN # 5 P51 RR00168 -36). Both of these studies above are ongoing, but as early as 1990 researchers had found that even a small hole between cages of individually caged monkeys which allowed them to touch each other stopped most of this behavior. Ms. Fountain’s assertion notwithstanding, the cause of SIB has been well known for years: Most non-human primates are more social than humans and isolating them causes insanity. (See D. Blum, The Monkey Wars, pg. 191). Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center: Christopher L. Coe says that, "Prior research at our laboratory has determined that stressful events experienced by the pregnant female monkey can affect her fetus . . ." . Now he wants to know, " . . . whether the absence of breast milk and its soluble immune products exacerbates the effects of prenatal disturbance." ( PN # R01 MH41659 -12). In a similar study at the Wisconsin center, researchers are scarring the amygdala (a deep brain structure) of female monkeys to induce a permanent state of fear. They want to know whether such stress can affect a baby born to such an afflicted mother. Tulane Regional Primate Research Center: Margaret R. Clark is working to enlarge the breeding colony of rhesus macaques. She wishes the facility to produce an additional 150 babies a year. She says, " . . . infants will be removed [from their mothers and all adult monkeys] within three days of birth . . . Management practices will maximize the psychological well-being of the animals." ( PN # 5 P51 RR00164 -34, $103,241). Gamal M. Ghoniem is implanting vascular cuffs around the neck of the bladder of rhesus macaques. A lead to this cuff runs out of the monkeys’ bodies and allows him to squeeze off the neck of the bladder while the monkeys attempt to urinate. He has found that monkeys whose bladder necks are most tightly closed take longer to pee than those with less obstruction. ( PN # 5 P51 RR00164 -36). Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center: Leonard L. Howell has learned that monkeys trained to drink caffeine will self-administer lower doses than monkeys trained to receive intravenous injections. ( PN # 5 P 51 RR00165 -37). Opendra Narayan has successfully developed a cross between SIV and HIV-1. He reports that this new virus he has created is, "highly pathogenic in pigtailed macaques." He does not mention whether it would be harmful to humans. ( PN # 5 P51 RR00165 -37). Margarete Tigges is sewing the eyelids shut on newborn infants. ( PN # 5 P51 RR00165 -37). California Regional Primate Research Center: David G. Amaral is using chemical means to permanently disconnect the amygdalas from the rest of the brain in male monkeys. He wants to know whether they will still be able to communicate with facial expression. He says this will help us understand criminality and psychopathic behavior in humans. ( PN # 5 P51 RR00169 -36). William Gilbert is ligating (tying shut) esophagi and catheterizing the tracheas of fetus rhesus macaques. He characterizes this as chronic catheterization which means that these babies inside their mothers have these tubes in them for days or months on end. ( PN # 5 RR000169 -36). What these examples teach is that the federally funded primate research centers around the United States have little regard for or understanding of the animals they experiment on. Any abuse is allowed in the name of Science. Studies routinely repeat experiments that have been done on humans. Monkeys are disposed of as if they are broken equipment. Every center has received warnings about the condition of the animals’ housing. Every center keeps monkeys in isolation. Every center receives over 10 million dollars a year. Expansion is underway around the country. Every law to protect and enhance the life of these animals has been heavily lobbied against by the biomedical community. The researchers say this work is important because we learn about humans since monkeys and apes are so like us, but at the same time they say we should not be concerned over the torment these animals suffer because they are so unlike us. Biomedical researchers have made the same arguments and done similar things to minorities throughout history. The research taking place at the NIH Regional Primate Research Centers is just more of the same. Its root cause is the bigotry that is always associated with unbridled hubris. Only when people speak out will it end.