Nasa laid down 26 monkeys in its research center in a single day last year instead of moving them to asylum, according to documents reviewed by the Guardian, a move left by animal rights activists around the world.
According to documents released under freedom of information laws, 27 primates held by Nasa were inducted on February 2, 2019, at the Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California. The document states that the monkeys were old and that 21 of them were suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
U.S. House Representative Kathleen Rice wrote to Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine regarding the deaths. “I look forward to an explanation from Bridenstine of why these animals were taken captive and exiled instead of living in sanctuary,” says Rice. that the Guardian said.
These monkeys lived in the Ames facility under the care of Nasa and a research entity called LifeSource BioMedical. The research facility cited these monkeys years ago when no suitable sanctuary was found due to age, said Stephanie Solis, Head of LifeSource BioMedical.
“We agreed to accept the animals, act as a sanctuary and provide all the care at our own expense, until the advanced age and declining health led to a decision to euthanize. humbly to avoid a poor quality of life, ”Solis told the Guardian. She went on to clarify that the monkeys had not been studied while at the Ames facility.
John Gluck, an animal ethics expert at the University of New Mexico, criticized the incident. He described them as suffering from “ethnographic deficiencies and frustrations inherent in laboratory life”. He said these prime ministers were not seen as “deserving of access to asylum” and said it was “satisfaction rather than a simple approach”.
Nasa has a history of using primates for their projects and research. Chimpanzee by the name of Ham was the first major ape to be launched into space in 1961. But in the last few years, the federal space agency has reduced the use of primers for research purposes, as a result of an important decision by the National Institutes of Health to exclude all chimpanzees in medical examinations. But other labs are still using them, as it has been reported that they are better at studying diseases that affect humans.