Bioculture can’t take primates away from home now
March 1, 2011
by Peggy Ann Bliss
When Glorimari Jaime Rodríguez, mayor of Guayama, approved two historic ordinances prohibiting the exportation, breeding and use of monkeys for experiments in her city she put an effective end to the plans of Bioculture Puerto Rico, Inc., to capture more than 4,000 monkeys from the island of Mauritius, confine them cruelly in cages, force them to reproduce in Guayama and sell their progeny to foreign laboratoris to use in painful and lethal experiments. For this effort Mayor Jaime will be honored with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Compassion Award.
"Mayor Jaime knows that Bioculture's plans would have been disastrous for her community and for the animals," said Kathy Guillermo, vice president of PETA's lab research division.
"Thanks to her, there apparently will be no legal road for Bioculture to take the monkeys away from their home in the jungle, raise them in Guayama and sell their offspring to laboratories for cruel experiments."
In addition to the Guayama legislation, last year the Puerto Rico Senate approved a resolution sponsored by Sen. Melinda Romero Donnelly,urging government agencies of the United States to "deny [to Bioculture] any request for a license to import monkeys to Puerto Rico."
The island legislature had simultaneously submitted bills to make it impossible for any other municipality to open its doors to doing business with Bioculture. However, the question could be moot if their importation could be blocked completely.
Animal advocates had complained that in Mauritius, babies were forcefully taken from their mothers before the natural weaning process, causing extreme anxiety and stress. They also point out that while the tests on the animals are not always painful or fatal, monkeys are social animals who cannot survive caging for years. It was also noted that when the testing is completed, the animals usually have nowhere to go and must be euthanized. For more information or to see the prize awarded to Guayama's mayor, visit the Web at PETA.org or the PETA blog.
http://www.prdailysun.com/news/PETA-honors-Guayama-mayor-for-saving-monkeys
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