An entire troop of monkeys housed in a NASA unit would have been killed rather than sent to a sanctuary – and a New York lawmaker is asking to know why.
All 27 primates at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, received lethal doses of drugs to euthanize on February 2, 2019, the Guardian revealed on Tuesday.
The monkeys were aging and 21 had Parkinson’s disease, the Guardian said, citing documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
In a Sept. 8 letter from The Post, U.S. Representative Kathleen Rice (D-NY) also quoted NASA’s “Animal Disposition Records 2018-19” and a related letter asking NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine to justify the sacrifice.
Rice said several monkeys “simply face the effects of old age and are housed indefinitely in a laboratory setting, despite not being used in any recent research protocol.”
“If efforts to retreat to a sanctuary have not been considered, please explain why,” she wrote. “I am concerned that the failure to consider withdrawing these monkeys to a sanctuary sanctuary, on a case-by-case basis and instead, euthanizing the entire colony is a useless waste of animal life ”.
Animal rights lawyers have also been outraged by the shocking revelation.
John Gluck, an animal ethics expert at the University of New Mexico, said that monkeys “apparently are not considered worthy of a chance at a sanctuary life.”
“Elimination instead of the expression of simple decency. Shame on those responsible, “he said.
Mike Ryan of Rise for Animals, a nonprofit group that obtained the documents, said the monkeys were treated as “subsequent tragic thoughts.”
“NASA has many strengths, but when it comes to animal welfare practices, they are outdated,” he added.
NASA used chimpanzees and other primates to test its Mercury space capsule and launched a chimpanzee spacecraft called Ham in Space in 1961.
But the monkeys killed last year were part of a joint care agreement with LifeSource BioMedical, a drug company that rents space at the Ames Research Center, the Guardian said.
LifeSource CEO Stephanie Solis told The Guardian that the company was given the creatures “years ago” because their low age and health prevented them from being placed in a shrine.
Solis also said that the monkeys had not been subjected to research experiments since then.
“We agreed to accept the animals, acting as a sanctuary and providing all care at our expense, until their advanced age and declining health led to a human euthanasia decision to avoid a poor quality of life.” said Solis.
A NASA spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.