By JILL LASTER (AP) – 37 minutes ago
GUAYAMA, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico has such a bad history with research
monkeys running amok, some residents are stunned that its territorial
government has approved a plan to import and breed thousands of primates for
sale to U.S. researchers.
Bioculture Ltd., with facilities at 19 sites around the world, has secured
permits to begin operating next summer in Guayama, a small, depressed
mountain district in southeastern Puerto Rico. They want to turn the
Caribbean territory into a major supplier of primates, much to the dismay of
islanders already dealing with a plague of patas monkeys — descendants of
lab escapees that run though backyards, stop traffic and destroy crops.
The company, based in the African island nation of Mauritius, says the
operation will employ at least 50 people and buy fruit from local farmers,
an important consideration on an island where unemployment is nearly 16
percent.
"This will help many people in the community," said Olga Colon, a local
school principal who has collected 300 signatures in support of the
facility. She said Bioculture has pledged to buy supplies for her school.
But the project is opposed by everyone from Guayama Mayor Glorimari Jaime to
Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro, who says it's unethical to breed
monkeys for research, and renowned primatologist Jane Goodall.
"We know now that monkeys have minds, personalities, and, above all, they
have feelings," Goodall said during a recent visit to Puerto Rico. "What we
do for monkeys in medical research — if you were a monkey, it would be
torture."
Local residents have filed a lawsuit supported by People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals that says Bioculture failed to submit a full
environmental impact statement or hold public hearings.
They say Bioculture allegedly paid fees for a $2 million project, when the
project costs $12 million. The company denies the allegations.
A judge could decide as early Monday whether to order an injunction to halt
construction. Either side could appeal the ruling to the state Court of
Appeals.
Bioculture's facility, the first in a U.S. jurisdiction, plans to start with
1,000 Crab-eating Macaques, natives of Southeast Asia, and eventually hold
up to 3,000.
Puerto Rico has long struggled to control hundreds of patas monkeys,
descendants of primates that escaped in recent decades from research
projects and now thrive in the lush tropical environment.
No labs want the patas monkeys because they're no longer right for research,
and many are diseased. There isn't much demand from zoos, either. So rangers
from the island's Department of Natural Resources trap and kill them.
Wilson Nazario Torres fears the people of Guayama will suffer like those in
his hometown, Lajas, which has been overrun by patas monkeys. The three that
live in his back yard are so used to humans, he can't scare them away.
"If this project was offered in any state in the United States, they
wouldn't allow it," said Roberto Cintron, a 46-year-old resident of Carmen,
a Guayama neighborhood close to the facility site. "So they come to an
isolated community, a neglected community, and offer jobs, and people buy
it."
Bioculture Vice President Moses Mark Bushmitz said some groups are just
trying to stir up panic. It happens at all new facilities.
The Guayama facility is one of many already inside the United States, he
said, where about 70,000 research monkeys were used in 2007, according to
the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The company assures people in Carmen and all of the Guayama district that
its monkeys can't escape multiple levels of security.
"You have monkeys in MIT, you have monkeys in Harvard," Bushmitz said. "So
why isn't it an issue if the monkey will escape in Harvard, but it is an
issue if a monkey will escape in Carmen?"
Bushmitz called the protesters a small minority.
"This area was neglected for so many years," he said. "The people here have
no chance. The young guys have no work."
But Carla Cappalli, a spokeswoman for the local PETA chapter, says opponents
will keep fighting, no matter what the judge rules.
"This is going to be a long case," she said. "We're going to fight this to
the end."
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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