NP - Watchdog Group Opposes San Antonio Lab Monkey Shipment; Demands 250 Monkeys be Returned to the Wilds of Nepal

[Guest guest]

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*

 

*Thursday, November 20, 2008*

 

*Contact: Michael Budkie 513-575-5517(office); 513-703-9865 (cell)*

 

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*Attention: News Desk

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Watchdog Group Opposes San Antonio Lab Monkey Shipment;

 

Demands 250 Monkeys be Returned to the Wilds of Nepal

 

 

 

 

 

*SAN ANTONIO, TX* - A National Research Watchdog Organization has contacted

the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research to protest the impending

shipment of 25 macaque monkeys from Nepal to the San Antonio laboratory, and

to demand the release of more than 250 primates now being held at a U.S.

funded primate lab in Lele, Laliputur, Nepal.

 

According to government reports obtained by SAEN, the Southwest National

Primate Research Center (SNPRC) already imprisons at least 1,600 macaque

monkeys, of which 1,400 are used for breeding. The macaque monkeys comprise

about 25 percent of the 6,000 primates incarcerated at SNPRC. Nationally,

more than 40,000 macaque monkeys are held in major breeding centers like the

SNPRC.

 

The Nepal facility receives an estimated $660,000 per year in federal

funding, through the SNPRC, which itself is connected more than $42 million

in annual federal funding, while the Primate Center System which is

comprised of 8 laboratories is connected to approximately $1.2 billion in

annual federal funding.

 

" Nepalese wildlife groups have expressed opposition to the exportation of

primates to U.S. labs, and a significant part of the Hindu and Buddhist

people of Nepal consider these monkeys sacred, " said Michael A. Budkie,

A.H.T., Executive Director, SAEN.

 

" The U.S. research industry should not be plundering the wildlife of other

nations to satisfy its unending thirst for monkeys and federal funding, " he

said.

 

 

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--

Lucia de Vries

Freelance Journalist

Bagdol, Patan, Nepal

Wijk 4-47, 8321 GE Urk, Holland