Trouble Mounts for Proposed Monkey Prison; PETA Urges Bainbridge to Hit the Brakes

Contact:
Sydney Rader 202-483-7382

As turmoil grows in the primate experimentation trade, and recent revelations raise questions about the people and money behind the plan to build the nation’s largest monkey warehouse in Bainbridge—a colossal import-and-breeding facility capable of holding 30,000 monkeys—PETA sent a letter today calling on city officials to use all available authority to stop the project from proceeding.

PETA’s letter to the Bainbridge City Council highlights a stark industry reality: New Jersey-based Barton’s West End Farms, a longtime supplier of monkeys for use in cruel and deadly experiments in the U.S., recently shut down after nearly 65 years in business. Yet Safer Human Medicine is proposing an even larger monkey facility in Bainbridge, despite the collapse of this decades-old operation.

Members of Congress have introduced the bipartisan Preventing Risky Importation of Monkeys to Avoid Toxic Exposures (PRIMATE) Act, which would prohibit the importation of monkeys for experimentation, over concerns about the disease risks associated with warehousing thousands of imported monkeys. The bill’s sponsors, Reps. Greg Steube (R-Fla.-17) and Dina Titus (D-Nev.-01), note that imported monkeys can carry tuberculosis, herpes B, Shigella, Salmonella, and other pathogens transmissible to humans. The legislation directly threatens the supply chain on which operations like this have historically depended.

Safer Human Medicine’s financial backing has also raised questions. Newly revealed financial details show that 8VC, the venture-capital firm founded by billionaire Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, supplied $20 million of the $28 million the company raised, leaving the project heavily dependent on a firm tied to Lonsdale, who has repeatedly faced criticism for alleged racist remarks and other inflammatory public statements.

“This massive monkey prison scheme was a disastrous deal from day one, and every new revelation gives Bainbridge another reason to send Safer Human Medicine packing,” says PETA Chief Science Advisor on Primate Issues Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel. “PETA urges city leaders to reexamine what they signed up for and use every tool at their disposal to stop this facility from ever being built.”

Bainbridge and Decatur County officials initially backed the project with more than $58 million in incentives, including tax breaks and public land. Citing concerns about waste, noise, disease risks, and cruelty, Bainbridge residents have packed public meetings and taken legal action to stop the facility, which would import, breed, and warehouse thousands of monkeys before sending them for poisoning, mutilation, and death in pointless experiments.

Safer Human Medicine is led by former executives from Envigo, Charles River Laboratories, and Covance, all animal experimentation companies that have faced federal investigations and citations for repeated violations of animal welfare regulations.

PETA previously revealed that the company’s CEO, Jim Harkness, a former Envigo executive, lied to Georgia residents about problems at the company’s Virginia facility that bred beagles for sale to laboratories. A PETA investigation prompted a U.S. Department of Justice probe, the facility’s closure, and the release of nearly 4,000 beagles for adoption.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.