All monkeys in a NASA research center were put to death on the same day last year, according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act petition.
A total of 27 primates were euthanized at the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, on Feb. 2, 2019, The Guardian reported.
The animals were older and most had Parkinson’s disease, but animal rights activists have condemned the decision not to find a home for them.
They were not used for research, but were held there by a private research company renting space in Ames.
A congressman has called for an investigation into why the animals were dropped.
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All monkeys (stock photo) in a NASA research center were put to death on the same day last year, according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request
The animals “suffered from the ethological hardships and frustrations inherent in laboratory life,” said animal ethics expert John Gluck, criticizing their “removal rather than the expression of simple decency.”
“Shame on those responsible,” Gluck told the newspaper.
U.S. Representative Kathleen Rice (D-NY) told the Guardian that she is pushing for a “humane retirement policy” for laboratory animals in government laboratories.
Rice called on NASA chief Jim Bridenstine to investigate mass euthanasia.
A total of 27 primates were euthanized at the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, on February 2, 2019 (stock)
“I look forward to an explanation from administrator Bridenstine as to why these animals were forced to languish in captivity and be euthanized instead of living their lives in a shelter,” Rice told The Guardian.
Brindistine’s 2017 nomination by President Donald has been met with bipartisan criticism for his lack of scientific or technical experience and his previous denial of human-caused climate change.
The US first killed a monkey in the name of space exploration in 1948, a full decade before the founding of NASA: Albert, a rhesus monkey, was launched nearly 63 miles into the atmosphere aboard a V2 rocket.
He died of asphyxiation during his journey, although scientists claimed it was in order to learn about the physiological effects of space travel.
Albert II, another rhesus monkey, survived its 83-mile rocket flight a year later, but died after a parachute failed and his capsule crashed to Earth.
They were not used for research, but were held there by a private research company renting space in Ames. A congressman has called for an investigation into why the animals were put down (stock photo)
But the monkeys euthanized in the Silicon Valley center were not used to further aviation. They weren’t even owned by NASA.
They were held there by LifeSource BioMedical, a private drug research company that had rented space on the site.
Stephanie Solis, director of LifeSource BioMedical, says the company agreed to include the monkeys years ago after their age and declining health made it impossible for them to find a home.
‘We agreed to accept the animals, act as a sanctuary and provide all care at their own expense, until their advanced age and declining health resulted in a decision to humanely euthanize in order to achieve a poor quality of life. avoid, ”she said.
Solis said LifeSource never conducted any research on the animals and insisted they had a “ good residual quality of life. ”
A NASA spokesperson told the Guardian that the agency has “no non-human primates in NASA or NASA-funded facilities.”
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 76,000 monkeys were used by biomedical researchers in 2017 alone.
But the US government has moved away from using primates in experiments.
As a result, researchers say there is a shortage of testing potential COVID-19 vaccines, according to The Atlantic.
The National Institute of Health stopped using chimpanzees in 2015, and while scientists could have sourced monkey subjects from China, the pandemic halted exports of the animals.