Earlier this year, researchers on a federally funded study of alcohol abuse faced a dilemma.
What do you do with two old, drunken monkeys?
Hoo Hoo and Duff, both 18, had given years of service to Wake Forest University researchers as test subjects in a long-running study of substance abuse. Both lived in cages where they were trained to “self-administer” booze through a tube. They had administered it freely for five years.
Researchers wanted to phase out both monkeys, which had been used in various projects that brought in around $24 million in federal grants, according to data compiled by White Coat Waste, an animal rights group.
Hoo Hoo was partially crippled by arthritis. Duff had a sour disposition and could only be caged with a submissive partner.
What happened over the next few months was a breakthrough for animal rights activists who have argued for years that federal health agencies must do a better job of retiring thousands of monkeys, dogs, cats and farm animals used in biomedical research.
Many of the primates come from South Carolina, which has the nation’s largest federally-owned monkey colony on an isolated barrier island. The state is also home to a monkey farm in Yemasee that supplies primates to labs like the one at Wake Forest in North Carolina. Once the animals are considered no longer useful to laboratories, many are euthanized or shipped to a limited number of private sanctuaries that charge a wide range of fees.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace is a Charleston Republican whose district encompasses Morgan Island, commonly known as “Monkey Island.” She has proposed ending all federal funding for primate experiments. But phasing out such research requires agencies to develop retirement policies, including where they will send test subjects if they survive long and sometimes painful experiments.
Mace has suggested a first step would be protecting the 4,000 monkeys currently held in reserve on Morgan Island. Every year, several hundred are rounded up and shipped off to government laboratories. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a leading animal rights group, said it hopes to turn the island into a population-controlled and protected monkey rest home.
The S.C. Department of Natural Resources, which owns the island, said it has not been contacted about a sanctuary plan. Greg Westergaard, the CEO of Alpha Genesis, which holds a federal contract to manage the monkeys, did not respond to a request for comment.
Mace introduced language in the House appropriations bill this year to require the National Institutes of Health justify its continued funding of Morgan Island in light of the Trump administration ‘s changed thinking about the need for animal research.
Nowhere to go
Thousands of research monkeys held in laboratories will also need a place to go as agencies cut back on experiments. Primate experts say they cannot go to Morgan Island without provoking warfare among the established colonies that have lived there since 1978. The search is on for other sanctuaries.
Until recently, researchers were barred from spending federal grant money on shipping or medical costs associated with animal retirement. That changed this summer after major health agencies announced plans to scale back animal research and turn to alternative testing methods.
In July, White Coat Waste received a leaked message circulating in a research chat group. The notice sought volunteers to adopt the Wake Forest monkeys for $1,000 each to spare them from euthanasia.
MAGA influencer Laura Loomer posted the leaked message on social media site X. In a heated post, she accused Wake Forest of animal cruelty.
Wake Forest remained silent. The school did not respond to repeated messages from The Post and Courier or others inquiring about the fate of the monkeys.
A few weeks ago, before the federal government shutdown, NIH quietly announced it had changed its funding rules to allow grant recipients to use taxpayer money for animal retirement. This had been forbidden previously and made it more cost-efficient for laboratories to euthanize animals at the end of their service.
It’s too soon to tell how much the change will cost federal taxpayers. NIH spokespeople did not respond to messages during the federal government shutdown.
Amy Meyer, PETA’s associate director of primate experimentation campaigns, said “the NIH has recognized that as research modernizes, its victims deserve a chance at a decent life. The amount that laboratories have been willing to spend to provide sanctuary for primates has always been a tiny fraction of the money they received from NIH to keep them in captivity.”
Some respected research centers have opened their own retirement centers. Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore has an on-site location for rhesus and pigtail macaques phased out of its experiments, a less costly alternative to shipping them out to private sanctuaries.
Given the benefits obtained from research monkeys, researchers wrote in a paper last year “it is our collective duty to care for them to with the highest possible standards.”
A haven for chimps
Finding a humane solution for old research animals is not a new challenge. In 2000, NIH faced a passionate lobbying campaign by activists, including respected primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall, to end experimentation on chimpanzees, considered the closest relative to humans
Congress outlawed chimp research and partially funded a sanctuary for the lab animals in Louisiana. Three hundred retired chimps now roam freely at Chimp Haven near Baton Rouge. The project is often cited as a model of government and private donors working together to support animal retirement.
PETA’s plan for transforming Monkey Island includes sterilizing male monkeys and putting the island under new management. NIH currently has a contract with Alpha Genesis, which also runs monkey farms and a private research laboratory in Yemasee and Early Branch. Last year, it came under fire when 43 federally-owned monkeys bolted from the property and had to be recaptured.
“Morgan Island, run by Alpha Genesis, is as close to a ready-made sanctuary as we can find anywhere in the U.S. The monkeys have been on that island for at least three generations. They know each other and have already formed stable relationships and family groups,” said PETA senior vice president Kathy Guillermo.
“Jane Goodall showed that science is nothing without empathy,” she said. “We must honor her vision by ending experiments on primates and transitioning breeding facilities into sanctuaries.