They call it science, but it is really just monkey business

The facility has imported, bred, caged and sold hundreds of thousands of primates in its failed scientific system that dates back 60 years. When it was still called Yerkes, the center clung to chimpanzee research, subjecting them to years of extreme cruelty under the guise of scientific progress. But as the costs and limitations of using large, complex, endangered chimpanzees became undeniable, Yerkes had no choice but to stop experimenting on them. Instead of rethinking its approach, the center simply shifted to other primates, doubling down on the same outdated, ineffective research methods.

Harvard University closed its New England Primate Research Center in 2015 after reports exposed cruelty, high mortality rates and lack of scientific progress.

The cruelty and pointlessness of Emory’s monkey business is boundless. Experimenters use monkeys in addiction experiments and those designed to cause extreme psychological distress. Emory’s monkey experiments are cruel and pointless. Mar Sanchez’s team has removed infant monkeys from their mothers, subjected them to abuse and exposed them to cocaine to study addiction. Since 2021, Sanchez has taken $3.9 million in taxpayer funds to study cocaine’s “reinforcing effects” without producing a single treatment or cure — just more papers to keep the funding coming.

Negligence and incompetence are common at Emory, as the litany of U.S. Department of Agriculture citations for violations of the Animal Welfare Act will attest.

Federal inspection reports show multiple violations of animal protection regulations. Monkeys have died from starvation, strangulation, suffocation, heatstroke, asphyxiation on their vomit and self-mutilation. That’s in addition to the monkey who was scalded to death after a cage was run through a high-temperature washer with the monkey still inside and to those who died of trauma, shock and sepsis.

Recent inspection reports show monkeys suffer from debilitating pain and unnecessary deaths. A 3-month-old monkey who was found inside sustained a fracture to his right arm so severe it needed amputation. A 2-year-old female was found dead in an outdoor enclosure after her head became stuck inside a gap in the compound wall. This facility failed to maintain basic safety despite the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars Emory gobbled to ensure secure housing.

Emory can’t even meet basic sanitation standards. Federal inspectors found that staff left monkeys in cages that hadn’t been sanitized in weeks, violating the Animal Welfare Act and increasing the risk of disease transmission. Emory blamed staff shortages, admitting it cannot comply with these biosafety measures — an excuse that does nothing to protect animals or the public from potential disease outbreaks.

NIH recently announced it would lower the maximum indirect cost rate it applies to grants to 15%. Emory’s primate center has an astronomical indirect cost rate of 82% for grants for their experimenters and 53% for the infrastructure that maintains the primates for the experimenters — proof of how much taxpayer money is wasted keeping this cruel, failing institution afloat.

The continued operation of the Emory National Primate Research Center is a blatant scandal — cruel, outdated, scientifically bankrupt and a waste of taxpayer money. Harvard made the difficult but necessary decision to close its primate center. Now, Emory must do the same, and the government must discontinue the center’s infrastructure grant and halt all future funding for primate experimentation.

Lisa Jones-Engel is a senior science adviser for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.