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, Lalitpur district, 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 religious, animal welfare and 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.