Stop U.S. Army from Poisoning African Monkeys

Target: Commanding General of Aberdeen Proving Ground Nick Justice

Goal: Stop poisoning vervet monkeys to test the effects of nerve agent chemical attacks.

The U.S. Army plans to implement a cruel exercise that will overdose African vervet monkeys with a drug called physostigmine to recreate symptoms of a nerve agent attack. The Department of Defense prohibits harming primates for training purposes and requires alternatives to be used when available. Well, effective alternatives called human patient simulators are available but are not being utilized.  The Army’s laboratories must recognize and abide by this policy, and stop using inefficient and cruel medical training methods.

The brutal exercise being organized at Maryland’s Aberdeen Proving Ground will involve 32 monkeys that are already locked up to be forced to endure chemical overdoses as often as every 60 days for three years. In addition to the monkeys that are currently at Aberdeen, another shipment of 20 more vervet monkeys is scheduled for the end of September. They will experience vomiting, uncontrollable twitching and seizures and will at times stop breathing. In a laboratory worksheet that PETA obtained from Aberdeen, one trainee compared a monkey’s violent reaction during the exercise to “a chiwawa [sic] sh*tting razor blades.”

There is an effective alternative program to test the effects of a nerve agent attack that is used around the world. Human patient simulators are used to mimic human response to a nerve agent attack and can be tested in various realistic scenarios.

By signing the petition below you will help urge the Commanding General of Aberdeen Proving Ground and the Commander of U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense to stop this unnecessary use of primate testing before it begins.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Commanding General Justice,

The barbaric methods of testing that are to be implemented at Maryland’s Aberdeen Proving Ground must be halted. The U.S. Army plans to carry out a cruel exercise that will overdose African vervet monkeys with a drug called physostigmine to recreate symptoms of a nerve agent attack.

Not only is this process of primate testing cruel and unnecessary due to the availability of an effective alternative program, it violates the Department of Defense policies that prohibit the harming of primates in training exercises and require that non-animal training methods be used when available.

I am urging you to save the 32 vervet monkeys that are already locked up at Aberdeen, and the 20 more that are scheduled to be shipped by the end of September. Please take actions to enforce current policies and force the Army to utilize other available methods of testing.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

Photo credit: Sonel