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CLEVELAND AMORY BLACK BEAUTY RANCH
Roxanne, a rhesus macaque, at the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch |
They have names and tattoo numbers, but they aren't missing pets. They are carefully managed and kept from public view, but they aren't Hollywood stars. They receive regular meals and live behind bars, but they aren't in prison. Who are they?
These phrases describe the life of primates who live at research laboratories and are representative of the hundreds of thousands of rhesus macaques who remain in the research industry today. Over the last ten years, the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch rescued rhesus macaques who have been used in various biomedical research laboratories across the country. For the primates kept in small steel, sterile cages inside these laboratories, these facilities are places where they experience pain and distress on a regular basis.
About Macaques
Macaques are used in research primarily because their genetic makeup is similar to humans, especially their neurological, reproductive, and immunologic systems. The rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) is yellowish brown in color and has a tail about half as long as the body. They live in social groups in the forests or rocky hillsides, typically at high altitudes. As a testament to their wide use in medical experiments, the RH blood factor found in humans, as well as monkeys, was named for the rhesus macaque.
They are natives of Southeast Asia such as India, Thailand, and Southern China. Up until 1977, they were captured in India by the tens of thousands and brought to the United States for the research industry. The consumption of rhesus macaques by the research industry reduced wild populations by 90% before export limits were put into place. In 1978, India banned export of rhesus macaques, and breeding colonies were established in the U.S. to continue the supply.
Macaques at the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch
Reviewing the few records of origin we have for the ranch's rhesus macaques is a chilling process. One group of six rhesus macaques, known only by their numbers AH19, AH73, AH76, AI84, AK12, and AL21 arrived at the ranch in August of 1995. The group originated from the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center, Department of Psychology. Their birth dates range from 5/10/79 to 3/20/84. There is no evidence of studies or experiments performed on them there. In May of 1990, they were shipped to the University of Texas Health Science Center, Dental Branch, in Houston. Referred to only as numbers, we know little of these animals' prior history and what they had been subjected to apart from routine testing for tuberculosis. Not surprisingly, investigators' names have been blocked out on most records and forms.
Records show that AI84 had been called "Effie." Here at the ranch, she is called Roxanne. If she could talk, Roxanne might tell us what she experienced as a research subject in psychology at the University of Wisconsin. Perhaps she would reveal how she was used in dental studies at the University of Texas and why she became deaf. One record indicates she had also been used in speech and hearing studies at the University of Texas Health Science Center; another states she was transferred to "sensory studies." A page from a medical record comments that she got into a fight with another macaque and lost a digit from her right hand in March of 1995.
In 1997, another group of rhesus macaques arrived at Black Beauty Ranch from New York University Medical Center-LEMSIP (Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates). Even less is known about this group of ten individuals, except that they all have names. No indication is given as to which, if any, animals had been involved in surgical procedures. Ectasia, Angela, Christi, Wilhelmina, Sunshine, Blondie, Lindsey, Ann, Hershey, and Cecilia arrived on September 26. Five months later, in February of 1998, LEMSIP sent four more macaques to Black Beauty Ranch. This group consisted of two males and two females—Yitzhak, Demi, Mardi and Hampton.
Though the horrors of laboratory life are far behind them, some of these macaques still exhibit abnormal behavior brought on by isolation, repeated capture and restraint, pain or distress, or other conditions of laboratory life. Since their previous experiences with human beings have been negative, contact with humans at the ranch is limited to avoid further stress to them.
The tattoo numbers researchers had inscribed on the macaque’s bodies are no longer visible, hidden under their fur, which is no longer shaved. Here at the ranch, the macaques are not required to do anything except enjoy sunshine and fresh air and eat a complete diet. A complete diet for rhesus macaques includes daily a wide range of fruits and vegetables, which primates in research do not routinely receive. They now live in large enclosures furnished with branches, perches, hiding boxes and grass. In cold weather they have access to roomy, heated houses.
If there is any bright spot in these macaques’ past, it is that someone at both research facilities cared enough to get them to an appropriate sanctuary where they will never be harmed again. Though the federal government in 2000 mandated that all chimpanzees be placed in sanctuaries when no longer needed for research, hundreds of thousands of rhesus macaques remain in laboratories with no such stipulation. The typical way out is euthanasia.
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Posted February 5, 2007
