Rhesus Macaques, continued

Records show that AI84 had been called "Effie." Here at the ranch, she is called Roxanne. If she could talk, Roxanne might tell us what she experienced as a research subject in psychology at the University of Wisconsin. Perhaps she would reveal how she was used in dental studies at the University of Texas and why she became deaf. One record indicates she had also been used in speech and hearing studies at the University of Texas Health Science Center; another states she was transferred to "sensory studies." A page from a medical record comments that she got into a fight with another macaque and lost a digit from her right hand in March of 1995.

In 1997, another group of rhesus macaques arrived at Black Beauty Ranch from New York University Medical Center-LEMSIP (Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates). Even less is known about this group of ten individuals, except that they all have names. No indication is given as to which, if any, animals had been involved in surgical procedures. Ectasia, Angela, Christi, Wilhelmina, Sunshine, Blondie, Lindsey, Ann, Hershey, and Cecilia arrived on September 26. Five months later, in February of 1998, LEMSIP sent four more macaques to Black Beauty Ranch. This group consisted of two males and two females—Yitzhak, Demi, Mardi and Hampton.

Though the horrors of laboratory life are far behind them, some of these macaques still exhibit abnormal behavior brought on by isolation, repeated capture and restraint, pain or distress, or other conditions of laboratory life. Since their previous experiences with human beings have been negative, contact with humans at the ranch is limited to avoid further stress to them.

The tattoo numbers researchers had inscribed on the macaque’s bodies are no longer visible, hidden under their fur, which is no longer shaved. Here at the ranch, the macaques are not required to do anything except enjoy sunshine and fresh air and eat a complete diet. A complete diet for rhesus macaques includes daily a wide range of fruits and vegetables, which primates in research do not routinely receive. They now live in large enclosures furnished with branches, perches, hiding boxes and grass. In cold weather they have access to roomy, heated houses.

If there is any bright spot in these macaques’ past, it is that someone at both research facilities cared enough to get them to an appropriate sanctuary where they will never be harmed again. Though the federal government in 2000 mandated that all chimpanzees be placed in sanctuaries when no longer needed for research, hundreds of thousands of rhesus macaques remain in laboratories with no such stipulation. The typical way out is euthanasia.

Related Links

Read about Kitty, Lulu, and Midge, the chimpanzees at the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch.

Offsite Links

Download the "42 Ways to Help Animals in Laboratories" pdf.
Learn more about the issues of non-human primates in research.

Re-posted: February 16, 2010