Four baboons, bred and held in captivity for research, experienced 30 minutes of freedom after they worked together to escape from the Texas Biomedical Research Institute this week.
It took officials less than half an hour to retrieve three of the animals, and although they thought one remained free, staff later determined that the fourth animal had returned to the enclosure shortly after the escape.
Following the incident, staff concluded that these intelligent primates had worked together to roll a 55-gallon barrel over to the fence of their enclosure, pushed it upright, and climbed out. Once out of the enclosure, the baboons were easily able to scale the perimeter fence and make their way to nearby roads, where locals were shocked to see them running along beside cars.
A statement released by the facility tried to downplay the escape as a “perimeter breach incident.”
“This was truly a unique incident,” said Assistant Vice President for Communications Lisa Cruz. “We have been caring for research baboons for more than 50 years. We have nearly 1100 baboons on the property that date back eight generations. Baboons, as with all our animals, are critical to biomedical research.”
Housing more than 2,500 animals, the Texas research facility subjects them to experiments to develop vaccines and medicines for human use. And this isn’t the first time such an incident has occurred here. In 2011, the lab were fined around $25,000 for repeated animal escapes, one resulting in injury to a caretaker and one resulting in the death of a primate.
Other issues in recent years have been reported by the USDA, including several primates dying from strangulation, bite wounds, and equipment failure.
Throughout the U.S., there are 100,000 nonhuman primates imprisoned in 159 research centers and 15 federal facilities. Over a quarter of those primates (25,483) are used in experiments that may cause pain or stress, and 740 of those monkeys are not provided with any kind of pain medication.
Researchers say that testing on primates is essential, due to the similarity in DNA to humans. However, animal tests are cruel and notoriously unreliable.
In the last three years, research centers have received 377 citations for not obeying the law, and 77 violations directly affecting the health of the animals used, reports the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit.
Thankfully, forward-thinking scientists are searching for animal-free alternatives.
Dr Kevin Healy of the University of California is heading a team working on a new method that uses real human heart cells combined with computer technology. In the future, this methodology will enable scientists to effectively test the effects of drugs on the human heart, with the potential to expand to other organs, such as the liver.
Harvard University and the University of Oklahoma have already shut down their primate research programs, and research on great apes is being phased out throughout the country. Still, thousands of primates suffer every day in labs.
Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars every year help fund the torture and abuse of these sentient, innocent animals. Animal advocates cite endless cases of neglect, torture and abuse, and ask why this is still allowed to happen when the experiments on animals don’t often translate to effective treatments for humans.
STOP the SUFFERING — STOP the CRUELTY — SHUT DOWN THESE HELL-HOLES — PAY a visit to PCRM.ORG — These animals NEED protections from depraved abuse, cruelty & torturous death – PAY A VISIT to PCRM.org to learn how unnecessary it is to use animals in research — it’s just NOT done anymore — we have many humane, non-lethal alternatives available, NOT using animals — moreover, some of this research is nonsense — if money was not at stake, not a soul would buy into this so-called “research.”
“If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals.” — Albert Einstein
If I were a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, now I’d say “Kuabaongw, dude!”
FANTASTIC THAT THEY ESCAPED !!!
Why don’t you test on the scumbags in prison
The biggest scumbags of all are the vivisectors. Let them gleefully torture one another (videos taken from the labs have shown them laughing and joking while they torture their animal victims).
Stop testing on animals and release them all. You have no right to do this.
Stop animal testing full stop
Stop animal testing full stop
Stop testing on animals!
“Researchers say that testing on primates is essential, due to the similarity in DNA to humans.”
Bollocks. They’ve been hauling out this same line for decades. How would they appear to the public if they actually admitted the truth? The reality is, there is a lot of money in the business of cutting up & torturing animals. Animal researchers have been conning the taxpayers for years & have inflicted unimaginable pain on millions of sentient beings. It truly is Mad Science.
Well said Audriana.
Excellent Audriana. Well said. I agree with you completely.
Ban and stop reasearch done on all animals. Stop the torture on innocent animals that also want to live and have the right to live. God did not create animals for us to torture. He created them to be loved, respected and taken care of. What can be done to stop this terrible torture to animals?
Poor baboons. Wish the four and all the other baboons escaped to freedom. Ban reasearch done on all animals. Love you baboons and all other animals. We will keep fighting that you and all the other animals get freedom from these cruel, stupid animals reasearch labs. Shame on humans. Shame !
SHUT PLACES LIKE THIS DOWN FOR GOOD,EVERYWHERE! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?
THIS CRAP NEEDS TO BE OUT LAWED EVERYWHERE!
IT’S ABUSE FOR GOD SAKE!! HOW CAN ANYONE BE FINE WITH THAT?!?! THERE ARE OTHER WAYS TO RESEARCH AND TESTING OTHER THAN ON LIVE ANIMALS!
AMEN, Tucker !
Could they not stop abusing these animals in this cruel and torturous way? This should be out an end to! Humans are truly the most evil and violent beings!
I don’t understand why they do this to innocent animals. This may sound harsh, but why don’t they offer an option to prison inmates to volenteer for these experiment. The ones on death row espisally . They don’t have anything else to look forward to so why not help mankind.
Many people have offered your idea, but the research would still be bogus. A disease has a specific and intimate connection to its host body. Artificially created symptoms in a prisoner would not be the same disease as that which has occurred spontaneously in some other human. So, the attempt to extrapolate from one being to another, due to differences in immunity, psychology, histology, metabolism, etc. is misleading, at best. Then, when non-human animals are added to the mixture, it becomes complete non-science and fraud. These are the scientific facts that vivisectors know well, but don’t want the public to understand. Otherwise, the money from our tax dollars will stop rolling in — money used for activity which is completely against the beliefs of many citizens, and reluctantly acquiesced by the the rest of society, through incessant media hype, fear mongering and outright lies. Of course, the ethical argument against animal experimentation is self-evident for its massive, heinous psychopathology. Two organizations who connect the dots on ALL the reasons vivisection is fraud are: White Coat Waste and People for Reason In Science & Medicine.
I don’t understand why they do this to innocent animals. This may sound harsh, but why don’t they offer an option to prison inmates to volenteer for these experiment. The ones on death row espisally . They don’t have anything else to look forward to so why not help mankind.
I pray Dr Kevin Healy of the University of California and his team find a way VERY SOON to free l ALL animals, wild and domestic from this awful, horrid, unnecessary painful experimentations. Animals were never meant to have this done to them! They have no voice but ours. They aren’t ASKED “hey, wanna join our painful experimental program?” They’re just “grabbed, nabbed, taken” without a though of caring about what these animals are going to go through! I have always hated the thought of experimentation on animals! If I lived near a place that does this, or knew of one close by I’d have to think seriously about finding a way to release the animals. I’m sorry but these animals are innocent. They’ve never done anything wrong except being born into a cruel world. Prisoners……..those in for life or on death row, those definitely guilty of heinous crimes (and there are hundreds of thousands), use them to experiment on!! Instead of wasting a needle on them or whatever state’s taxpayers having to pay for their upkeep, let the experimental companies keep them up. On top of saving INNOCENT animals from such unasked for horror it might just cut down on crime! Dr. Healy, please hurry! If using body parts of cadavers will work, hallelujah! Can you blame the baboons for “breaking out”?
I feel the same way
This post has helped me think things thgoruh
Animal testing is asinine.
I came, I read this article, I codqeuren.
The advancement of computer technology gives hope that they will replace animals in laboratories. They may even replace scientists. What these other species are being put through is beyond science.
Vivisection never was necessary. Ethical doctors and scientists have been speaking out against it, on scientific, as well as ethical, reasons, right from the start.
Is it job creation that keep these labs open or is it a money grab? Testing on animals is useless, the animals are tortured and suffer their whole lives, then die an excruciating death. What rights do humans have to inflict this on poor defenseless animals???
Use humans who have done harm, not tanimals that are innocent.
Stop using animals for experiments. Use killets who have caused so much pain.
Animal research is unfortunately necessary to develop vaccines and other medicines for our children. The companies are always in it for the money though. I am against animal testing and yet happily accept these vaccines/medicines.
I feel so bad about this. ? Perhaps these baboons are semi outdoors at least? The worst is cosmetic testing! Completely unnecessary!
Unfortunately necessary? Certainly not necessary for the animals! End the cruelty against animals and stop the practice of vivisection!
Ironically Dana, it was through being an antivivisectionist, and a desire to know more, that I was able to get my hands on a book that everyone should read, but which was very heavily suppressed (or banned, one might say), in 1978. The reason it was pulled out of bookstores as soon as it arrived, was because it revealed vivisection’s disastrous effects on human health, containing data from doctors, hospitals, public health records, and medical journals. That’s when I learned about the censorship and deep corruption in the medical cartel.
I was particularly astonished to read about cancer and leukemia resulting from vaccination. I wondered why I had never heard anything like this before, and what other information is kept from us. So, I started investigating, and found that what this book reported is just a tiny tip of the iceberg. That first book, “Slaughter of The Innocent,” was followed by “Naked Empress, or The Great Medical Fraud,” and “1,000 Doctors (and more) Against Vivisection.” All of those are by Hans Ruesch, who discovered this information while working as a medical editor, but there are virtually hundreds of books like them, all of which are suppressed.
I ended up writing my own book, “The Vaccination Connection,” which can be read online for free. And everyone can learn about not only the uselessness, but the counter productiveness, damage, and death, caused by vivisection – all at this site:
PRISM: People for Reason and Science in Medicine
http://www.peopleforreason.org
Experiments on animals cannot be extrapolated to humans because of differences in physiology, metabolism, bio chemistry, genetics and environment. Vivisection is not science. It is big business. Universities vivisect on animals because they receive million dollar grants every year from us tax payers through the NIH. Animals, humans and the environment all suffer because of animal experimentation. Find out more at peopleforreason.org
These people who conduct this research are inhuman how they can torture these animals and not be bothered by it I don’t know, I just hope them and all their family members suffer a terrible death.
Good for the baboons. The researchers should test the vaccines out on themselves. These fur babies belong in the wild. Not behind bars.
See hoe bright the baboons are? Best to put the sadists in their place. That I’d love to see. We must NOT tolerate the abuse of any animal.???
Horrible. No need to experiment on animals
Peecrft shot! Thanks for your post!
I don’t like taxpayers’ money being used to torture animals for phony “lifesaving” experiments!
TAKE THE NEEDLES/TUBES/PIPES/SCALPELS.. ETC….. CONTAIN IN “REAR ORIFICE/SKULL/OPEN BODY” THEN BE EXPECTED “SMILE” “DO UNTO OTHERS(ANIMAL/HUMANS) AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU”,,,,,,,,,BUT DO IT FIRST” !!!!!!!!
That’s laughable… “we have been CARING for research baboons”… torturing is more like. Tell it like it is… would Cruz like to be subjected to the RESEARCH that the baboons experience? Of course not!
I wish they all could have escaped and someone from a sanctuary could have scooped them up and given them freedom for the rest of their lives. (I know, a pipe dream, but my heart breaks for these precious souls).
Thank you. I wish a group of Animal rights rescue people like the really touph ones were going by at that moment and drove off with them… Anywhere like an underground rescue centre, where Wild life vets support were waiting, then flown them to a Sanctuary far far away . .. If only.
Why cant you use death row inmates for testing, why use innocent animals. Its cruel how we treat the innocent worse than a murderer, rapist, psychos on death row, shame shame shame on how this is done 🙁
The worst psychos are those who use our tax money to assuage their sadistic urges on innocent beings, and then manage to convince a sizable portion of the population that they are doing something noble. Vivisectors are the lowest form of life on the planet.
Yes!
What a shame that in this age of so much scientific knowledge and advanced computers we still heavily rely on these poor animals. Damn makes me so mad.
It has always been a fraud, and a front for the coalition of many corrupt industries, and it exists because of money and sadism. Those two things. Period.
I think they should use convicted rapists, murderers and pedophiles for research subjects, NOT innocent animals.
I am with you Cher, think of the money it costs to keep these sub-humans in captivity, they should earn their keep!!
No, the worst criminals are those who wear the white coats and disguise themselves as “good guys,” when, in fact, they are the worst of the worst: Demons masquerading as saviors. Let them vivisect each other.
A few years ago I’d have to pay someone for this infoamrtion.
KEEP TRYING TO ESCAPE SWEET INNOCENT BABOONS.RUN LIKE HELL. AS FOR THE MAD SCIENTIST…YOU ALL CAN ROT IN HELL.!!!!!!
Why don’t you publish the name of this horrific facility? Why protect them? These highly intelligent animals should be protected! What is the name of the facility that breeds them to be tortured? NAME NAMES!!!
They did name the facility: Texas Biomedical Research Institute. We can all google their contact info, and deluge them with e-mails, sane calls and letters, and don’t forget to do the same with your Senators and Congresspeople.
dam why didn’t they keep running. research labs should be testing on the fcking researchers not animals.
So true. Let these sickos do it to each other, not to innocent beings.
Since it’s not really “research,” and most certainly not valid research, it is like fingernails on a blackboard to me, to see these horrific crimes against all that is good and decent being called “research.” It is vivisection, if we want to keep our language at least civil.
These centers should be shut down! These animals deserve to be free!
It is so sad to know these primates are suffering at the hands of humans! I am sorry these escapes where caught and returned – they deserve to live free!!
I believe all laboratories testing on Animals should be shut down and they must place these Animals in good sanctuaries. They’ve abusused and murdered too many Animals for profit for decades, their testing is not accurate, so end this torture to Animals now.
COWARDLY, CRUEL , SADISTIC AND HEARTLESS TEXAS!!!
One for the baboons zip for the cruel keepers! Come on folks doesn’t this tell you that what you are doing is so wrong?????
There has got to be a better way to find cures and such without using primates! It will come to a point when they will be extinct, then what will we do?
I applaud the intelligence of the baboons to have made their escape. I pity them though that there was no feasible way that they could remain at large since they were not capable of adapting to such a different environment. I welcome the day when science admits that animal testing is obsolete and these wonderful creatures are no longer tortured for the sake of “science.” My cynical attitude tells me that animal experiments will continue long after necessary merely to provide lab workers gainful employment – to hell with the sentient animals arguments.
Judy, Vivisection was never necessary — not at any time. It’s not that we don’t need it anymore and it’s “obsolete”. “Obsolete” implies that it was a valid practice at one time. It has been cruel, non-science from the very beginning. The good news is that, however slowly, it is on its way out.
Animal cruelty is a crime and should be prosecuted and stopped. Experimenting on animals is cruelty. Somebody stop this.
Be strong folks; let’s get rid of stupid torture labs.
I am hoping that there is some justice by the powers that be for all of this inhumane treatment of living creatures. I have to believe that or this world would be a very bleak place to me.