Target: Jeff Jackson, North Carolina Attorney General
Goal: Stop planned, reportedly cruel medical experiments involving baby monkeys.
Several young monkeys are at risk of fatal complications from imminent doctor training exercises that the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine are decrying as inhumane and potentially illegal. A planned four-day training session for pediatricians at North Carolina’s Wake Forest University will subject vervet monkeys (some weighing as little as two pounds) to a variety of invasive medical procedures that could inflict damage ranging from bladder and vocal cord injuries to blood clots. Even if the experiments go according to plan, the monkeys will still likely experience intense pain resulting from various instruments being inserted into their windpipes, urethras, and other body parts.
The committee speaking out against this session has called it “unjustifiable” because no other similar medical training programs taking place in the country use animals. Medical research as a whole has been trending away from animals in favor of human subjects or lifelike simulations of humans. The physician committee has sent letters to the National Institutes of Health, the local sheriff’s department, and the North Carolina attorney general in an urgent attempt to halt this dangerous effort.
Sign the petition below to echo their calls for immediate action.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Attorney General Jackson,
To “intentionally…wound, injure, torment, kill…without justification”: the aforementioned is the core of North Carolina’s animal cruelty statute. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has brought to your attention a troubling case of potential cruelty involving Wake Forest University. The school has planned a medical training session in early August that will include multiple painful and possibly dangerous medical experiments being performed on two-pound monkeys. The committee – comprised of physicians who know their craft – has vehemently argued that usage of these young animals is completely unnecessary and could, in fact, threaten their lives.
They – along with many constituents – are so alarmed by these circumstances that they have reached out to various medical and legal outlets, including the attorney general’s office. Time is of the essence. Please seriously weigh these concerns and take urgent legal action to prevent a sanctioned case of alleged mass animal cruelty from taking place.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Rotational
