Puerto Rico Court Flips in Favor of Animal Research

by Stephanie Feldstein · 2010-02-10 10:15:00 UTC
Topics:

In late December, a Puerto Rican judge halted construction on a facility that would breed thousands of macaques for medical research. The victory was sweet, but short: Only a few weeks later, the Appeals Court gave Bioculture Ltd. the green light to keep building, while the appeal works its way through the system.

Bioculture was originally dragged into court by local residents unhappy with the insufficient environmental impact statements and lack of a public hearing process. The company's appeal complained of "substantial damages" to Bioculture and the economic development of Puerto Rico.

The project continues to coast along a track of "irregularities." First, the judge that ruled against the company cited irregularities in the permitting process. Then Bioculture filed a motion, along with its appeal, to resume construction, and the opposition was given a mere 24 hours to respond. They met their deadline, but only hours later, the court ruled against them. This handling of Bioculture's motion by the Appeals Court was called "absolutely irregular" by a local attorney contacted by the Animal Legal Defense Fund.

It's absurd that construction is allowed to continue when the permits and environmental impact are in question. It's absurd that they've had so many problems on the island with escaped research monkeys and their plan is to bring in more. Most of all, it's absurd that they're building a new facility for thousands of research animals when scientists around the world are moving toward effective and humane non-animal research methods.

Ask Puerto Rican officials to stop supporting animal research and permanently put an end to this project.

Photo credit: Blues davis paris

Stephanie Feldstein is a Change.org Editor who has been part of the animal welfare and rescue community for over a decade, and most recently worked for an environmental organization.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Facebook: Sociopath Networking?
NEXT STORY:
Petitions Delivered Around the World for Release of Indonesian Circus Dolphins

COMMENTS (0)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.