Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle want taxpayer-funded primate experiments suspended at a notorious U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) laboratory.
As reported by POLITICO, the New York Times, and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Congressmen Brendan Boyle (D-PA) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) just sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb urging him to halt primate testing after a 5-year-old monkey strangled to death in a restraint device while left unattended during a cruel taxpayer-funded experiment.
Enough is enough. Taxpayers are sick and tired of the government’s multimillion-dollar monkey business, and I’m proud to lead bipartisan efforts to cut wasteful and abusive primate research at the FDA.https://t.co/mGAAEIEOsM
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) March 27, 2019
Proud to be a part of this humane effort https://t.co/jspLvSjhXl
— Rep. Brendan Boyle (@CongBoyle) March 27, 2019
Last year, WCW convinced FDA to stop nicotine addiction tests on over two dozen monkeys at the same facility and retire them all to a Florida sanctuary. The tests were canceled after criticism from WCW, taxpayers, Dr. Jane Goodall and Congress. Four other monkeys had died on that project, and Commissioner Gottlieb pledged to implement reforms. Boyle and Gaetz’s letter expresses concern about a continued “pattern of negligence and abuse.”
In October 2018, Gaetz and Boyle wrote Gottlieb and urged him to end all of the agency’s primate testing.
Take a moment to write your Congress members and urge them to cut funding for all painful primate testing at the FDA and other federal agencies.