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
Showing posts with label Guayama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guayama. Show all posts
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Friday, 20 August 2010
Monkey farm nixed again at Guayama hearing (via Sally Tully-Figueroa)
August 17, 2010
The committee which opposes establishing a farm to breed monkeys in Guayama objected Monday to Senate Bill 1628 that seeks to legalize the raising of these animals on the island.
Community leader Roberto Brito reported that hundreds of residents from Pueblito del Carmen in Guayama showed up at the Guayama Convention Center, where the Federal Affairs Committee heard testimony on the measure that “would allow the breeding of wild monkeys for the sole purpose of scientific experimentation.”
The committee’s operations were supervised by Sen. Melinda Romero, of the New Progressive Party, Popular Democratic Party Sens. Juan Hernández Mayoral and Eder Ortíz.
The panel comprised Brito, Dr. Eduardo Ibarra (president of the Health Rights Foundation) and municipal legislators Angel Sanabria ,of the PDP and Rey Catalino of the NPP, among others.
“We are against this bill, because if it is approved it will allow the breeding of monkeys, serpents, crocodiles, lions, and all kinds of exotic animals,” said Brito.
The community leader indicated that the Bio Culture company “wants to open its doors here in our town and is trying to intimidate us by filing a million dollar lawsuit, but that doesn’t scare me because I know it is a
pressure tactic.”
In the meantime, Ibarra, medical adviser for the committee in Guayama, said “there is a movement afoot [in the world] to eliminate the use of animals for experimentation purposes. [Such a movement] favors not
breeding these animals in Puerto Rico, as the Senate is proposing.
“Recently a scientific congress in Europe unanimously approved the elimination of experimenting on animals for medical or cosmetic purposes. Therefore, we understand that the Puerto Rican government should not make an alliance with a company from Israel involved in this unethical practice.”
Municipal legislators Sanabria and Catalino agreed that if a catastrophe like a hurricane occurred in Guayama, as many as 17,000 monkeys could escape.
Brito indicated “this bill sent to the Senate of Puerto Rico by the “Fortaleza is a sly way to approve a measure that would overthrow all the rules and regulations that would prevent people from raising monkeys in P.R.”
He said the Senate should “not promote a measure to please a special interest group of people from Israel while creating a negative effect on Puerto Rico.”
http://www.prdailysun.com/news/Monkey-farm-nixed-again-at-Guayama-hearing
The committee which opposes establishing a farm to breed monkeys in Guayama objected Monday to Senate Bill 1628 that seeks to legalize the raising of these animals on the island.
Community leader Roberto Brito reported that hundreds of residents from Pueblito del Carmen in Guayama showed up at the Guayama Convention Center, where the Federal Affairs Committee heard testimony on the measure that “would allow the breeding of wild monkeys for the sole purpose of scientific experimentation.”
The committee’s operations were supervised by Sen. Melinda Romero, of the New Progressive Party, Popular Democratic Party Sens. Juan Hernández Mayoral and Eder Ortíz.
The panel comprised Brito, Dr. Eduardo Ibarra (president of the Health Rights Foundation) and municipal legislators Angel Sanabria ,of the PDP and Rey Catalino of the NPP, among others.
“We are against this bill, because if it is approved it will allow the breeding of monkeys, serpents, crocodiles, lions, and all kinds of exotic animals,” said Brito.
The community leader indicated that the Bio Culture company “wants to open its doors here in our town and is trying to intimidate us by filing a million dollar lawsuit, but that doesn’t scare me because I know it is a
pressure tactic.”
In the meantime, Ibarra, medical adviser for the committee in Guayama, said “there is a movement afoot [in the world] to eliminate the use of animals for experimentation purposes. [Such a movement] favors not
breeding these animals in Puerto Rico, as the Senate is proposing.
“Recently a scientific congress in Europe unanimously approved the elimination of experimenting on animals for medical or cosmetic purposes. Therefore, we understand that the Puerto Rican government should not make an alliance with a company from Israel involved in this unethical practice.”
Municipal legislators Sanabria and Catalino agreed that if a catastrophe like a hurricane occurred in Guayama, as many as 17,000 monkeys could escape.
Brito indicated “this bill sent to the Senate of Puerto Rico by the “Fortaleza is a sly way to approve a measure that would overthrow all the rules and regulations that would prevent people from raising monkeys in P.R.”
He said the Senate should “not promote a measure to please a special interest group of people from Israel while creating a negative effect on Puerto Rico.”
http://www.prdailysun.com/news/Monkey-farm-nixed-again-at-Guayama-hearing
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