A month ago, a truck transporting a hundred macaque monkeys from New York to a quarantine facility in Florida was involved in a traffic accident. The monkeys, packed in wooden boxes, were thrown from the truck; three escaped. Once found, the three were shot and killed by the police. How the other monkeys fared in the accident was not reported.

The monkeys are from the island nation of Mauritius. They were going to a quarantine facility to precheck for any diseases or viruses they might be carrying before being used for research. The officials who purchased the macaques have not released information about the monkeys that survived the accident. A passerby stopped at the accident out of concern. She looked in one of the boxes, later became ill, and was awaiting test results for monkey-borne diseases.

Have we learned nothing from COVID-19 and other animal-borne diseases that have jumped to humans, such as we also witnessed with Ebola? There are alternatives to using animals in research that are much safer and would cost the taxpayer less money.

Imagine how much money it costs to purchase a hundred monkeys, fly them to the USA and then house and quarantine them for several months before possibly using them for research.

It is time to stop exploiting, confining, and in most cases torturing animals for research.

We need to transition to only non-animal research. Please support organizations that are working towards that goal. If we leave the animals alone, they will leave us alone.