New 270-page federal complaint filed against monkey research center
YEMASSEE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed a complaint with the USDA on Tuesday morning regarding new whistleblower allegations against a monkey research facility currently under scrutiny.
Multiple animal rights organizations have filed federal complaints against Alpha Genesis Primate Research Center since 43 monkeys escaped their enclosure in November.
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PETA’s newest complaint contains hundreds of documents allegedly released by a whistleblower at the facility.
The written complaint includes numerous necropsy reports, detailing deaths of monkeys caught in cage equipment, suffering traumatic injuries from other monkeys, and being left in cold temperatures.
Dr. Alka Chandna, PETA’s Vice President of Laboratory Oversight and Special Cases, said the whistleblower worked at Alpha Genesis for more than two and a half years.
Macaques and humans share approximately 93 percent of their DNA, which the National Institutes of Health says makes them valuable for research on human diseases.
Chandna, however, said the similarities to humans are part of the reason groups like PETA oppose testing on primates.
“These are monkeys who are intelligent, sensitive animals who value their friendships, value their autonomy,” Chandna said. “Everything that would make their lives meaningful and worth living is stripped away from them.”
Alpha Genesis has received millions of dollars in federal funding, largely from taxpayers, in 2024. Rep. Nancy Mace is calling for a federal probe into the facility as well.
PETA is pushing for the medical industry to move to research methods that don’t use animals, such as organ-on-a-chip technology.
“I imagine that most viewers of Fox Carolina are perfectly aware if they share their lives with dogs, they know that they don’t feed their dogs chocolate because chocolate is toxic to dogs,” Chandna said. “Now, if I eat a lot of chocolate, I might get a stomachache and I’d be very unhappy with myself, but I wouldn’t die. And that’s just one simple example of how we cannot extrapolate data from one species and apply it to another.”
The Foundation for Biomedical Research says computer models and other alternative methods reduce the number of animals used for research but as of now, “there is no comprehensive substitute for animal testing and research.”
FOX Carolina sent an email to Alpha Genesis, which was delivered, asking for comment on the allegations but we have not yet received a response.
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