FDA forced to end monkey torture

There are many things morally wrong with taxes. But towards the top of the list is the fact that our wages are often forcibly seized from us and then used towards means we as individuals find abhorrent and unethical.

Whether those means be wars, prosecuting peaceful people for victimless “crimes,” abortions, or animal torture—it would be hard to find a consistent argument that people should have to fund atrocities against other living beings. And yet, that’s where we as Americans often find ourselves.

That’s why the White Coat Waste Project (where I am a Fellow) has made it its sole mission to end taxpayer funding of projects and research that involve animal torture. And that’s a much bigger job than you might think.

Recently, WCW gained a bit more ground in their efforts—ending all primate testing and breeding at the National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR), the FDA’s biggest monkey lab. This is the result of a multi-year campaign that began when the FDA was experimenting on primates at an all time high, with over 200 monkeys being abused (and sometimes killed) in their experiments each year.

While awful “animal rights” groups like PETA have been busy posing naked and throwing fake blood on people, WCW has been focusing its attention where it actually matters: on the government, which remains the largest funder of animal torture in the country. No other group has shut down a government monkey lab—or any primate tests in the USA—in nearly a decade.

From addicting baby monkeys to nicotine in Arkansas (to the tune of $5.5 million) to locking baby monkeys alone in tiny cages for years on end and forcibly addicting them to amphetamine, ketamine, and Ritalin, to tearing newborns away from their traumatized mothers and slaughtering them before they were a week old—the FDA’s activities have been heinous and senseless.

But thanks to the advocacy of WCW, as well as pressure from a growing bipartisan coalition of lawmakers like Reps. Brendan Boyle (D-PA), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Sanford Bishop (D-GA) and Ken Calvert (R-CA), the FDA began retiring these monkeys in 2018 and has now officially ceased these programs.

While it often feels the country is deeply divided, there are many common sense issues both sides can come together on and ending taxpayer funded animal torture is one of them. Everyone involved should be proud of their efforts, and the remaining government bureaucrats involved in these corrupt practices should be put on notice. Your program is next.

Hannah is a Fellow for the White Coat Waste Project.

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