On the 10th of December 2024, the animal rights group PETA announced that it had filed a 270-page “cruelty, neglect” complaint against the Alpha Genesis Center (known locally in the S.C. Lowcountry as “the monkey farm”) in Castle Hall Road, South Carolina, US, from which dozens of monkeys recently escaped.
On the 6th of November 2024, 43 rhesus macaques escaped from the centre. On the 9th of November, the Yemassee Police Department announced that one of the escaped monkeys had been successfully captured unharmed, and according to a police statement from the 20th of December, four primates were still on the loose as temperatures dipped below freezing for several days. In 2016, 19 monkeys escaped from the same company’s facilities and were returned to Alpha Genesis after six hours.
The complaint, which alleges that a “veterinary insider” has provided new evidence of animal cruelty, neglect, and animal death to PETA, was sent to two U.S. government agencies. Alpha Genesis insiders allegedly informed PETA that at least 20 other monkeys died of hyperthermia when a diesel heater malfunctioned. They revealed that the Yemassee-based facility has a history of federal violations.
A PETA statement read, “PETA has filed extensive complaints, including 270 pages of never-before-released evidence and exhibits, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Institutes of Health (NIH) urging the agencies to investigate alleged violations of federal law at Alpha Genesis, Inc. after a whistleblower familiar with the veterinary division of the company shared emails, reports, and photographs that appear to document widespread cruelty, negligence, and incompetence at the facility.”
Dr Lisa Jones-Engel, PETA primate scientist, said, “NIH officials appear to be stunningly ignorant about where they’re dumping millions of tax dollars. The evidence shows that Alpha Genesis has no regard for the law, the public, and the animals they use. It should be shut down now, and the monkeys sent to sanctuaries.”
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