No Justice for the Monkey Boiled Alive

She was a cynomolgus monkey, also known as a crab-eating macaque or a long-tailed macaque. Whatever name you prefer, her horrifying, gruesome death followed a brief life that itself was surely lonely, frightening, and painful. There were no trees, no gusts of wind, no natural smells, sounds, and sights, no family or companionship, no joy or wonder in her daily existence. Instead there was a tiny, barren space, with walls, ceiling, and floor made of cold metal wires. Instead there was terror. Instead there were likely injections and restraints and intentionally inflicted pain and isolation. And there was to be far more of that, as humans tested drugs on her--and in a lab with a history of abuse and cruelty at that.

But then even before they were done with her, she was killed, and in the worst way. She died horrifically in the same cage in which she lived so sadly. She gripped the cage bars as 180 degree water and caustic, burning chemicals rained down forcefully all over her trapped body, boiling her alive, melding the skin of her tortured body to the cage, permanently fusing her fingers to the metal bars that she gripped in terror and excruciating pain like we will never know. There is no doubt that she screamed. God, how she must have screamed. They had to peel her dead body from the cage.

Whether intentionally or carelessly (and how it could have been accidental--how someone could have failed to notice a monkey inside the cage--is beyond comprehension), the SNBL lab in Everest, Washington, killed her. And they're going to get away with it. Like the ranchers who can watch, unmoved, as their cattle starve to death, wasting away in unbearable pain, the people responsible for this innocent monkey's hellish death in a cage washer will go unprosecuted not because there are not at least some laws protecting nonhuman animals, but because humans don't care enough to demand that their fellow humans be held accountable for these deaths. The ranchers are not charged or are given slaps on the wrist because law enforcement and the prosecutor's offices don't have to worry about public outcry. They're just cows, after all. And the people and lab who sent that monkey to her sickening death will not have to answer charges in court because prosecutors refuse to bring a case and because a judge doesn't believe that a jury would find the people guilty. (And the federal government doesn't even see a crime here; that's how strong our federal animal welfare laws are.)

To those of you out there who don't understand why animal rights activists are sometimes so angry, who think we have nothing to be angry about, who don't understand how we can cry over animals we've never met, who prefer to remain blissfully ignorant and insist that the way we use animals is fine and that animals don't suffer at our hands because, after all, we have laws to prevent and punish animal abuse, or who condemn the open or covert rescue of animals from labs, to all of you--please pay attention. Incidents such as this, in which animals are not just abused but tortured--incidents that are not nearly as rare as you think--these are among our reasons for being angry. And they are the reasons that you ought to be mad as hell too.

Go read the article that first appeared early this year, when a Washington news station first broke this story. Among everything else you read will be the following, which tells a not-unusual story about what happens when employees who witness cruelty, whether in a lab or a slaughterhouse, dare to speak up: they get fired, and the abuse continues.

Joanie McCully is a former Animal Care Supervisor for the SNBL. . . .

"I was sick to my stomach. It broke my heart because that is so avoidable and unnecessary, and I couldn't believe it. I wanted to vomit right there." . . .

McCully is upset by what she calls a "long-standing disregard" for animal care at the Everett facility. As an example, she points to an e-mail from a veterinarian working at SNBL entitled "uh oh".

McCully asked the vet, "I heard about the monkey, pretty bad."

The reply: "Oh yes- what a mess! Knew it was (g)oing to happen at some time - many close calls. Now all the paperwork – USDA and AAALAC. What FUN!"

McCully was floored by the reaction.

"When I inquired about it, the reply I got back was 'Oh, dear.' Think of the paperwork. That just upset me to my soul because no animal in there should die because of somebody’s mistake or negligence or lack of compassion. "

McCully says she was recently fired after telling federal inspectors that some SNBL employees were abusing primates and failing to follow other US Department of Agriculture guidelines. [emphasis mine]

Her list of complaints include: employees carelessly spraying monkeys with acid and intentionally slamming primates on the floor. Why would they do that?

“Drop that cage from a standing position. Drop it. Monkeys would land on their heads in that cage and they'd (employees would) spin it around to confuse the monkey and get it all out of sorts. Then, (they’d) do the procedure. That way the monkey is cooperative.”

Links

Original story, Jan. 31
Update, Feb. 4
No Federal Violations for Boiled Monkey Death, May 20
Everett Judge Refuses to Allow Prosecution in Scalded Monkey Case, Oct. 29

Thanks to the Animal Law Blog for the alert.