Southland Congresswoman Calls for Retirement of Monkeys from Government Laboratory

Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Los Angeles, on Monday urged the National Institutes of Health to allow for the transfer of hundreds of monkeys from a soon-to-close federal laboratory to reputable sanctuaries.

The request follows NIH’s announcement that, after more than 30 years, it is ending controversial psychological experiments on baby monkeys and closing its Maryland facility by September 2018.

Since 2014, Roybal-Allard -- a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education -- has been leading efforts in Congress to end the experiments, by sending letters to NIH and including report language in an appropriations bill calling for a critical review of the project.

In a letter to NIH Director Francis Collins, Roybal-Allard and others urged the agency to make arrangements to allow the 300 monkeys to retire, rather than sending them to other laboratories.

“Having closely worked on this issue for more than a year, I applaud the NIH for making history by ending decades of traumatizing experiments on baby monkeys,” the congresswoman said. “I am pleased to join my congressional colleagues in urging Dr. Collins to now make arrangements to send these monkeys to sanctuaries, rather than sending them to other laboratories to be subjected to further experiments.”

--City News Service