$396M GA Facility To House 30K Monkeys; Animal-Rights Group Concerned

BAINBRIDGE, GA — A 200-acre Georgia husbandry facility with plans to house 30,000 monkeys that will reportedly be used for research is drawing pushback from residents and a national animal-rights organization.

Several opponents of the $396 million Decatur County facility attended Tuesday's Bainbridge City Council to share their concerns, which included potential diseases carried by monkeys and the local environment, WALB-TV reported Tuesday.

City and county officials dubbed the warehouse, "Project Liberty," and added Safer Human Medicine will operate the facility.

Project Liberty will sit in the Decatur County Industrial Park, per a report from The Post-Searchlight shared by the local Development Authority.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, known as PETA, said the new facility will be the largest warehouse in the U.S.

“In a bid to attract a few jobs — many of them low-paying and risking exposure to zoonotic diseases — city and county officials have rolled out the red carpet for an unethical plan by some questionable characters that could spell ecological disaster and potentially spark the next pandemic,” PETA primate scientist Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel said in a news release. “PETA urges Bainbridge officials to withdraw their support and shut down this project before a shovel hits the dirt.”

According to WALB, Jones-Engle attended the City Council meeting and noted housing 30,000 monkeys could bring dangerous pathogens and diseases to Bainbridge.

“The cost that this community is going to bear when they drop 30,000 monkeys into an environment that has no business holding 30,000 monkeys," Jones-Engle said at the meeting, per WALB. "It’s their tax dollars, it’s their backyards, it’s their environment. They’re the ones bearing the risks."

A 100 percent tax abatement for the first 10 years of Project Liberty was approved early this month, per WALB.

In a letter to Decatur residents, Safer Human Medicine deemed the safety of animals a primary concern.

"The health and welfare of animals under our care is our top priority. We are building state-of-the-art facilities with plenty of space, air and light. This is not a research facility and is strictly an animal husbandry facility meant to house and care for primates. Animals will be housed in groups so that they can interact and play with one another. We will provide them with toys, opportunities for foraging and other forms of enrichment. We will supplement their diet with fresh local produce straight from the surrounding community," the company said in a letter.

"The welfare of our animals will always come first, and we will provide them with the care they deserve. While we respect the views of those who may not agree with our purpose, we think it is important to share the facts with this community. Given their genetic similarity to humans, primates provide the most reliable model to demonstrate how a drug will impact our biological systems. No one would ever imagine giving a drug to a family member, a loved one or anyone else battling a disease or needing medical attention unless it had been thoroughly evaluated for safety. Science has not yet advanced to the point where we have reliable alternatives, and each drug is required by law to undergo safety testing in primates. Primates have been used to support research that has led to the development of therapies for diseases such as cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and many others. We all depend on these critical primates to save the lives of our loved ones and ourselves."

Safer Human Medicine said when evaluating where to place its new facility, choosing Bainbridge was based on factors such as education, infrastructure, community, location and business partnership.

The warehouse is expected to open later this year.