Don't Fund Baby Monkey Abuse With Tax Dollars!

As you know, the University of Madison-Wisconsin has approved a study titled "Early Neurodevelopmental Origins of Anxiety" to test the effects of maternal deprivation and extreme fear situations on baby monkeys. We undrestand that this research will be funded by the National Institute of Health -- U.S. taxpayers' dollars.

The study, under Dr. Ned Kalin's supervision, will use and kill 40 baby monkeys. Half of these monkeys will be taken from their mothers and placed in situations designed to induce fear and anxiety, including exposure to a live snake. The other half will remain with their mothers. After a year, ALL monkeys will be killed and their brains dissected. The mothers will also suffer the loss and accompanying distress of having their babies taken from them.

This study builds on 1970 research by Harry Harlowe, who removed babies from their mothers and placed them with cloth and wire replacements, programming some of the surrogates to physically abuse the babies. He also conducted research placing the monkeys in dark chambers for a year. To no one's surprise, the monkeys suffered permanent psychological damage from the abuse and maternal deprivation they experienced.

Rhesus monkeys are selected for these experiments because, as Kalin himself states, "their similarity to humans in social behavior, emotion, hormonal responses and brain structure make them the best model for examining human emotion regulation as well as the risk to develop anxiety and depression." In other words, using monkeys for this experiment is similar to abusing human babies. What could possibly be gained from this body of research that common sense and past observations haven't already shown? We already know the results: abuse, torture and neglect will have devastating effects on the babies' developing brains. U.S. taxpayers should not have to pay for gratuituous torture and abuse of innocent, intelligent animals just to tell us what we already know. We respectfully urge you to pull funding for this project. Thank you for taking the time to read and consider our petition.