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Plan to breed lab monkeys splits Puerto Rican town

By JILL LASTER (AP)

GUAYAMA, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico has such a bad history with
research monkeys running amok that some residents are stunned that its
government has tentatively 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 construction permits and hopes 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 many — 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 as Monday whether to order an injunction
to halt construction. Either side could appeal the ruling to the state
Court of Appeals.

The company expects to soon apply for permits to import monkeys to Puerto 
Rico.

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.

The U.S. territory 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 local animal rights activist, 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.