With excitement and delight, as I watch our movement's acceleration into mainstream media and consciousness, I share the program for ABC's Nightline, tonight, Wednesday March 4:
The headline is "Ex-Employees Claim 'Horrific' Treatment of Primates at Lab. Hidden-Camera Investigation Goes Behind Closed Doors at New Iberia Research Center."
The story, by Lisa Fletcher and Arash Ghadishah is posted on the Nightline web site at http://abcnews.go.com/nightline/
We learn that a Humane Society of the United States investigator took a hidden camera inside the New Iberia Research Center in Louisiana, which houses more than 6,000 primates.
Nightline tells us, "The lab receives millions in public funding but limited public scrutiny."
The printed story, and also the video, which you can watch on that web page, tell us:
"The Humane Society investigator who gained access as an employee shot video of a lab worker striking a restrained monkey's teeth three times with a pipe. The investigator says the employee wanted the monkey to open its mouth....
"Another piece of video shows a lab employee hitting an infant monkey in the head and swearing when the monkey bites at her finger."
We hear (or read) the investigator describe one of the scenes taking place in the video:
"This is a baby who is completely alert, completely awake, completely aware of his surroundings, and he's getting a substance forced down his throat. He is screaming, and he was very terrified throughout this and you can hear the screams of the other babies and mothers in the background because the mothers were in there too."
At the end of the story we learn:
"The U.S. Humane Society is working with four U.S. congressmen to introduce a bill to ban the use of chimpanzees in invasive research and retire at least half of the 1,200 in use to sanctuaries. Some have been in labs more than 40 years."
The only downside in the story is the recurring suggestion that what is happening to the chimps is worse than what is happening to other animals because chimps have more awareness, and close family bonds, and complex emotional lives. The more behavioral research done on other species, the more we learn that such characteristics are true for far more species than we had imagined who suffer similarly in laboratory settings. (How many of us think our dogs don't have emotional lives?) Yet that concern does not come close to overriding our cause for celebration as we see laboratory conditions covered in depth on ABC!
You can comment on ABC's web site. If you go there tomorrow, this story may no longer be on the front page but it will still be at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=6997869&page=1
Most importantly, I urge you to send notes of the utmost appreciation to Nightline for covering this issue and airing the disturbing video. Positive feedback for coverage of animal issues encourages more coverage in the future.
Nightline takes comments at http://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3428117
I send thanks to Jackie Raven for making sure we knew about this story.
Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)
Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com to read reviews and see a fun celeb-studded video and an NBC news piece on Karen Dawn's new book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the "Best Books of 2008."