Retired Monkeys
Many Russian pensioners may envy these elderly monkeys
Almost all his life, the 23-year-old Javanese Bush macaque lived in the laboratory of Princeton University (USA), where he "worked" as a test animal. In 2017 the "honored" monkey, with whom the employees had a warm relationship, was sent to a special shelter – there Bush saw the sky for the first time not through a window. Now in the United States , the question of the future of such "retired" monkeys is being actively debated.
The Peaceable Primate Sanctuary Monkey Shelter is located in a former manor house, spread out among maples and cornfields. This non-profit organization was founded two decades ago by American Scott Kubish, having invested in it not only specially collected money, but also his retirement savings.
Researchers in the United States often treat such shelters with suspicion, worrying about the quality of medical care for animals or fearing that they are run by "greens", who then deploy companies in the press against the use of animals in laboratory experiments. As for the Peaceful Primate Sanctuary, the name of which can be translated as "Peaceful Primate Shelter", at least three experienced animal care staff always work in its staff. Kubish himself does not allow himself negative reviews about research using monkeys. Both of these circumstances determine the credibility of the shelter on the part of scientific organizations that want to place their animals in it.
In the shelter, monkeys live alone or in pairs in rooms where there are swings and toys. Playgrounds are equipped on the territory of the house, where monkeys are waiting for climbing complexes, including ropes-"lianas", and balls filled with goodies. Having got here for the first time, Bush felt insecure and did not immediately decide to go out on the "street", where he had never been before. But, according to Kubisch, in the end all monkeys get used to the new environment.
Initially, the shelter was intended for baboons, but now it is inhabited by monkeys of various species, aged in laboratories. This includes rhesus macaques, which are often used in brain research or in testing vaccines, as well as Javanese macaques, on which the safety of medicines is usually checked. Princeton and Yale Universities have already established partnerships with the Peaceable Primate Sanctuary to send aged monkeys there instead of putting them to sleep or transferring them to other projects. In the near future, it is planned to expand the shelter by joint efforts.
Now there are more than 100 thousand monkeys in research centers in the USA, and the problem of their retirement is acute. More and more scientists say that for our closest "relatives" such an exit is the right decision. But, according to others, the needs of humans, not animals, should be put first, and old monkeys can be used, for example, in studies of the aging process.
Scientists also fear that even the very talk about the possibility of monkeys "retiring" may eventually lead to a complete ban on biomedical research on these animals, as has already happened with chimpanzees. This can also be facilitated by the increased attention that activists from animal rights societies show to this topic.
On the other hand, according to a report by the US National Institutes of Health published in 2018, the number of monkeys engaged in scientific research will continue to grow. This makes the question of the future fate of the "retired" monkeys even more relevant.
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