Lab primates

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2000:

The Swiss drug firm
Novartis Pharma AG on September
26 reportedly merged with
Biotransplant Inc. of Massachusetts,
with which it has worked
for several years to breed pigs
with human genes, and said it
would close Imutran, a British
subsidiary which on September 21
was subject of a London Daily

Express expose of allegedly cruel
conditions and falsified data in
pig-to-primate transplant experiments.
The Daily Express expose
was based on documents leaked to
the animal advocacy group
Uncaged Campaigns.
“Effective September
5, 2000, China Airlines will not
accept live primates destined for
experimentation as cargo,” the
airline has informed the Animal
Protection Institute.

Federal documents
obtained by API under the
Freedom of Information Act indicate
that China Airlines was the
second biggest transporter of nonhuman
primates to U.S. labs,
hauling 17 shipments including
2,161 longtailed macaques to four
different institutions. Air France,
the largest carrier, hauled 27 shipments
to labs, including 3,274
longtailed macaques.
The University of
Louisiana at Lafayette on September
6 quietly cancelled a $7.5
million experiment in which
researcher Daniel Povinelli p r oposed
to have human parents raise
eight chimps from birth to compare
the chimps’ brain development
with that of human babies.
The project was much criticized
for needlessly replicating many
previous studies