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Isn’t It Ironic: Scientists Fight to Save Monkeys from Extinction

by Sally Andersen

Alanis Morissette would have a field day with this one.

I can just hear her writing a new verse for Ironic now…

Dr. scientist/monkey.jpg
tested on a live monkey’s brain/
feeling just a bit guilty then/
he said “Let’s save them ‘fore they go extinct.”/

Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think? A little too ironic, and yea I really do think …

Okay, so maybe that’s not completely fair. But here is the CNN headline that caught my eye last night:

“Scientists fight to save the last Java gibbons”

Normally we think of scientists connected to monkeys in a bad way, with machines hooked into the primates’ brains. This story lends hope that the scientific community does have a human side to it as well.

My attempt at being objective with all of this cannot go without pointing out a few key facts about this story:

1. These scientists spoken about are monkey doctors (primatologists).

2. In the article, they are fighting against poachers who kill the adults, then illegally import and sell the babies. Around 12,000 to 15,000 monkeys are imported into the U.S. annually for testing purposes.
monkeysd.jpg
3. Only about 4,000 Java gibbons remain.

4. Around 65-70,000 primates are used in labs each year in Europe and the U.S.

5. Macaques are the most common lab test monkey. Rhesus monkeys, cynomolgus monkeys, squirrel monkeys, owl monkeys, marmosets, baboons, chimpanzees, and spider monkeys are also used.

6. They are referred to as NHPs - Non-human primates.

7. Out of the 12.1 million animals used in European labs in 2005, primates were the least popular. Mice were the scientists’ favorites, and even dogs and cats (grouped together as “other mammals”) ranked higher.


Today’s facts are brought to you from Wikipedia’s entry on “Animal Testing.”


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