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ACT ›  WNPRC: Killing Monkeys

For maternal deprivation tests, baby monkeys undergo intense trauma

cruelty for curiosity's sake

cruelty for the sake of curiosity

UPDATE: Maternal Deprivation Tests Are Stop-And-Go At UW-Madison. After partial respite, a cruel legacy continues at Wisconsin National Primate Research Center. In 2015 the primate lab declares it won't separate baby monkeys from mothers, as reported in UW's student-run newspaper. By 2023 the nearly century-old experiments are back. The catch? “Scientists” don't tear newborns away from mothers. They wait till monkeys are a year old. Animals still live in barren isolation before killed and dissected. Fellow scientists and doctors have said the experiments have no scientific merit, yet UW exploits taxpayer money to sustain them.

Cruelty For The Sake Of Curiosity
2/20/13 » Original KC Action Alert. University Of Wisconsin: Infant monkeys are taken from mothers within 24 hours of birth. To create “adverse rearing conditions,” they're isolated with a live snake and later, a cloth-draped “surrogate peer.” Human Intruder enactments purposely traumatize them. Fear is not a byproduct, but the very goal of deprivation tests during brain development. The monkeys endure brain scans and spinal taps, before killed to dissect their brains. When Harry Harlow first subjected infant monkeys to his infamous "Well Of Despair" a half century ago, he disgraced UW. These studies do not advance medical treatment then or now. Artificial rupture of the mother-baby bond is already well documented. Any perceived need for more data is overshadowed by the unethical nature of the tests. Among mammals, baby primates are especially dependent upon mothers for psychological health. To rob them of any sense of self, then kill them, is animal desecration and exploitation at its worst.


Baby Monkeys Spared?
3/19/15 » Controversial UW Study Will No Longer Take Baby Monkeys From Their Mothers. The Badger Herald, Linnea Langusch. Psychiatric professor Ned Kalin's experiments — for which baby monkeys are removed from mothers, traumatized continuously, and then killed at one year to examine their brains — will proceed without “maternal deprivation.” Tests had measured stress levels when baby monkeys are purposefully frightened by loud noises, human encounters or treats placed over live snakes. “Sujatha Ramakrishna, a pediatric psychiatrist, works with children who have anxiety disorders and is outspoken against Kalin's experiments. She believes the experiments are not an appropriate comparison to disorders in children. The Animal League Defense Fund filed a lawsuit against UW. ‘We are committed to complete transparency in how taxpayer dollars are used to support invasive animal research,’ Kelsey Eberly, lead attorney in the lawsuit, said. Kalin's research has stirred dispute, with a petition against the study acquiring almost 400,000 signatures…”


Cruelty Redux At WNPRC
2023 – 2024 » Maternal Deprivation Tests Make Comeback. In 2023 Dr. Alka Chanda, vice president of laboratory investigations cases for PETA, says UW-Madison's 2023 annual report shows 1,270 monkeys used in experiments, with another 1,090 restrained for future use. Chanda tells The Daily Cardinal (Wisconsin) reporters about three primary forms of alleged animal abuse: isolation, experimentation, breeding. Wisconsin National Primate Research Center plans to remodel contentious experiments from the 1960s, dubbed Harry Harlow's Well (or Pit) Of Despair. Yet again, young monkeys are separated from mothers to strategically traumatize with crude props and intruder enactments. Over half of century of similar experiments show that baby monkeys self-mutilate, pace and rock in cages, continually back-flip and exhibit other stereotypies symptomatic of elevated stress hormones, frustration and despair.

Yet images documented at WNPRC are “typical stereotypies and indicators of fear found in [all] captive monkeys raised in impoverished laboratory environments,” says John P. Gluck, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor, Psychology Department, University of New Mexico and Affiliate Faculty, The Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University. In response to PETA footage of monkeys isolated in bleak cages, babies removed from mothers, and male monkeys’ genitals electroshocked — Dr. Gluck ponders where is the science? “These behaviors are not examples of unusual circumstances… [but rather] a picture of baseline distress and suffering experienced by animals in the captive lab environment.”

As recently as 2023, Chanda, PETA's lead for lab investigations, describes monkeys Princess and Cornelius as “showing signs of depression” after segregated from mothers by age one. In The Daily Cardinal's A UW-Madison Research Lab Is Under Fire, she says monkeys live in metal cages with a dangling mirror or one plastic ball. Under “extreme psychological distress,” the hairless female monkey has resorted to Trichotillomania, or compulsive hair-pulling as a form of self-injury. “Long-term confinement of a caged animal is comparable to solitary confinement in human prison systems,” notes Sujatha Ramakrishna, M.D., Pediatric Psychiatrist. “It is not surprising that extreme environmental deprivation would result in self-injury.”

Monkeys are so severely compromised that the results are biologically/medically/scientifically useless. Because the monkeys are so very anxious, and/or physically traumatized, their entire biological/psychological systems are altered to the point where they cannot be a “model” of anything other than … trauma. The supposed “greater good” that is the usual laboratory rhetoric fails. Evidence is right before our eyes that this isn't good science, as well as being critically unethical science. Barbara J. King, Ph.D., Emerita Professor of Anthropology, College of William & Mary



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Dear Chancellor Mnookin and UW-Madison Animal Research Faculty:

As someone who cares about animal welfare and misuse of taxpayer money, I respectfully ask University of Wisconsin-Madison to reroute animal research funds into human-focused studies that use cellular, genomic, computational, and other applicable models.

National Institutes of Health annually awards Wisconsin National Primate Research Center tens of millions of dollars for animal experiments. Recent investigative footage shows monkeys who self-mutilate, pace, rock, and exhibit other stereotypies symptomatic of stress and despair. The monkeys are driven crazy in claustrophobic confinement, with bloody attacks between cagemates. In various experiments monkeys are isolated, babies are taken from mothers, and males’ genitals are electroshocked.

I've learned that a remodeled version of psychiatric professor Ned Kalin's maternal deprivation lab is underway. Based on Harry Harlow's half-century old “Well Of Despair” tests, young monkeys are separated from mothers to strategically traumatize with props and enactments. All are killed and dissected. Claims that relevant data can be extrapolated from captive primates to human childhood development are controversial. Regardless, they are overshadowed by the unethical nature of these experiments. Adverse response to maternal separation is already documented. Re-proving the same basic paradigm does not advance human health/safety.

Among research peers who condemn WNPRC experiments, Barbara J. King Ph.D. (Emerita Professor of Anthropology, College of William & Mary) states: “Because monkeys are anxious and physically traumatized, their entire biological/psychological systems are altered to the point where they cannot be a “model” of anything other than trauma.” John P. Gluck Ph.D. (Emeritus Professor Psychology Dept., University of New Mexico; The Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University) notes: “[Reactive] behaviors are not examples of unusual circumstances [but rather] a picture of baseline distress and suffering … indicators of fear found in captive monkeys raised in impoverished environments.“

UW-Madison primate experiments draw bad publicity. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has cited WNPRC for animal welfare violations, plus numerous fines, that damage the university's reputation. Please allocate UW-Madison resources to leading edge science, instead of the cruelty and suffering inherent in animal experimentation.

Thank you,

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CONTACTS RETRIEVED IN 2024
chancellor@wisc.edu, jennifer.mnookin@wisc.edu, lynn.haynes@wisc.edu, hunsley@rarc.wisc.edu, welter@rarc.wisc.edu, iacuc@rarc.wisc.edu, cmczajko@wisc.edu, nadine.connor@wisc.edu, kmoreland@rsp.wisc.edu, Mark.Rickenbach@wisc.edu, john.svaren@wisc.edu, nick.novak@wisc.edu, nkalin@wisc.edu, levine@primate.wisc.edu, chan@primate.wisc.edu, capuano@primate.wisc.edu, slarson@primate.wisc.edu, sboehm@primate.wisc.edu, jphillips@primate.wisc.edu, kbrunner@primate.wisc.edu, dtevans2@wisc.edu, jlenon@primate.wisc.edu
full contact information

CONTACTS RETRIEVED IN 2024
Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Office of the Chancellor
163 Bascom Hall, 500 Lincoln Drive
Madison, WI 53706
608-262-9946 ▪ chancellor@wisc.edu, jennifer.mnookin@wisc.edu


RESEARCH ANIMAL RESOURCES AND COMPLIANCE (RARC)
University of Wisconsin–Madison
396 Enzyme Institute, 1710 University Ave / Madison, WI 53726


UW-MADISON RESEARCH COMPLIANCE & ETHICS OVERSIGHT
Office Of The Vice Chancellor For Research
333 Bascom Hall / 500 Lincoln Dr / Madison, WI 53706

  • Cynthia Czajkowski, Interim Vice Chancellor For Research
    608-262-1044 ▪ cmczajko@wisc.edu
  • Nadine Connor, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Policy and Compliance
    608-262-1044 ▪ nadine.connor@wisc.edu
  • Kim Moreland, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Administration, Director Research & Sponsored Programs
    608-262-3822 ▪ kmoreland@rsp.wisc.edu
  • Mark Rickenbach, Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Policy and Integrity
    608-890-0228 ▪ Mark.Rickenbach@wisc.edu
  • John Svaren, Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Research in the Biological Sciences › john.svaren@wisc.edu
  • Nick Novak, Assistant Dean, Research Services
    608-265-4868 ▪ nick.novak@wisc.edu


WNPRC & HARLOW PRIMATE LAB PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Ned H. Kalin, MD, Hedberg Professor/Chair, Department of Psychiatry
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health
6001 Research Park Blvd / Madison, WI 53719
608-263-6079 ▪ nkalin@wisc.edu
NIH taxpayer-funded grants for Kalin's primate experiments ($14,150,693 & counting)

WISCONSIN NATIONAL PRIMATE RESEARCH CENTER
WNPRC / 1220 Capitol Court / Madison, WI 53715
Dr. Jon Levine, WNPRC Director › 608-263-3500
levine@primate.wisc.edu, chan@primate.wisc.edu

WNPRC Animal Services
WNPRC Research Services / Director's Office

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