All the monkeys in a NASA research center were killed on the same day last year, according to documents obtained through a request from the Freedom of Information Act.
In all, 27 primates from the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, were euthanized on February 2, 2019, The Guardian reported.
The animals were older and most had Parkinson’s disease, but animal rights activists condemned the decision not to find them a home.
They were not used in research, but were held there by a private drug research company that rents space in Ames.
A member of Congress called for an investigation into why the animals were let down.
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All monkeys (stock photo) from a NASA research center were killed on the same day last year, according to documents obtained through a request for the Freedom of Information Act
The animals “suffered from the ethological deprivations and frustrations inherent in laboratory life,” said animal ethics expert John Gluck, who criticized their “elimination instead of a mere decency.”
“Shame on those responsible,” Gluck told the paper.
US Representative Kathleen Rice (D-NY) told The Guardian that she was pushing for “human retirement policies” for test animals in government laboratories.
Rice called on NASA chief Jim Bridenstine to investigate mass euthanasia.
A total of 27 primates from the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, were euthanized on February 2, 2019 (stock)
“I look forward to an explanation from Administrator Bridenstine as to why these animals were forced to disperse into captivity and euthanized rather than live in a sanctuary,” Rice told The Guardian. .
President Donald’s nomination of Brindistine in 2017 was met with bipartisan criticism for his lack of science or engineering experience and his previous denial of man-made climate change.
The United States first killed a monkey in the name of space exploration in 1948, a full decade before the formation of NASA: Albert, a rhesus monkey, was launched nearly 39 miles into the atmosphere aboard a V2 rocket.
He died of suffocation during his journey, although scientists have argued that this is how they learned about the physiological effects of space travel.
Albert II, another rhesus monkey, survived his 83-mile missile flight a year later, but died after a parachute failure caused his capsule to fall to Earth.
They were not used in research, but were held there by a private drug research company that rents space in Ames. Congressman calls for inquiry into why animals were taken down (photo stock)
But euthanized apes in central Silicon Valley were no longer accustomed to aeronautics. They weren’t even owned by NASA.
They were held there by LifeSource BioMedical, a private drug research company that rented space on the site.
LifeSource BioMedical director Stephanie Solis says the company agreed to take the monkeys years ago, after their age and declining health made it impossible to find a home for them.
“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,” he said. she said.
Solis said LifeSource has never done research on animals and insisted they have a “good quality of life left over.”
A NASA spokesman told the Guardian that the agency “has no non-human primates in NASA or NASA-funded facilities.”
According to the US Department of Agriculture, a record 76,000 monkeys were used by biomedical researchers in 2017 alone.
But the US government has moved away from the use of primates in experiments.
As a result, researchers say there is a shortage for testing potential COVID-19 vaccines, according to The Atlantic.
The National Institutes of Health stopped using chimpanzees in 2015, and while scientists were able to obtain ape subjects from China, the pandemic stopped animal exports.