Latest / UNCHAINEDTV'S Truth Files with Jane Velez-Mitchell / UnchainedTV: Stop The Monkey Business!

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UnchainedTV: Stop The Monkey Business! · UNCHAINEDTV'S Truth Files with Jane Velez-Mitchell

• 0:01
  Welcome to Unchained TV, featuring best-selling author,
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  TV journalist, and the founder of the Unchained
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  TV free streaming network, Jane Valez Mitchell.
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  simple choice.
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  Now, here's your host, Jane Valez Mitchell.
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  Discover Unchained TV, and transform your life for
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  free.
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  Unchained TV is a nonprofit organisation producing plant
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  visit UnchainedTV.com.
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  That's UnchainedTV.com.
• 0:59
  And we have got breaking news for you.
• 1:02
  We can tell you that outraged citizens, frightened
• 1:07
  citizens in Georgia have united to stop a
• 1:10
  plan that would put America's largest laboratory monkey
• 1:14
  breeding facility in the small town of Bainbridge,
• 1:17
  Georgia, 233 miles south of Atlanta.
• 1:20
  The residents have filed a lawsuit in an
• 1:23
  attempt to stop this highly controversial plan to
• 1:26
  put 30,000 monkeys, twice the human population
• 1:30
  of the town, in their village.
• 1:33
  PETA is on the ground supporting the residents.
• 1:37
  They argue the plan should be invalidated because
• 1:40
  local officials approved the proposal during an illegally
• 1:44
  assembled meeting violating violating Georgia's Open Meetings Act.
• 1:50
  Basically, these citizens, and you're going to hear
• 1:52
  from one in a second, say this was
• 1:54
  being done behind their backs, and they are
• 1:58
  furious over the impact of caged monkeys on
• 2:01
  their property values, their safety, and so much
• 2:05
  more.
• 2:05
  So I want to go straight out to
• 2:09
  Christina Martin.
• 2:11
  Christina, you are one of the leaders in
• 2:15
  the fight to stop this.
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  Why did you decide to get involved?
• 2:19
  Well, I really did feel like I had
• 2:21
  a choice.
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  I mean, I moved back to my hometown
• 2:25
  to build a family, you know, be with
• 2:30
  my family, my elderly grandparents that are no
• 2:33
  longer with us, but to just, you know,
• 2:37
  start my life as an adult.
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  And, you know, I've been here for four
• 2:43
  and a half years, and this is just,
• 2:46
  this is not at all anything I ever
• 2:49
  would have expected to happen.
• 2:51
  I mean, we've done so much in our
• 2:54
  downtown development, you know, bringing industry, good industry,
• 2:59
  to the county, and just building downtown, and
• 3:06
  this is just kind of a kick in
• 3:09
  the head.
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  You know, I mean, our local officials have
• 3:14
  basically just put a huge dark cloud over
• 3:19
  everything that everyone in the town has worked
• 3:22
  so hard to build.
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  What they're planning here in Bainbridge is absolutely
• 3:26
  unprecedented in this country.
• 3:28
  They're planning to ultimately confine 30,000 monkeys
• 3:32
  on any given day and would be generating
• 3:35
  more than 400,000 gallons of wastewater a
• 3:38
  day.
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  These are all monkeys who would be into
• 3:41
  the pipeline to be into laboratories across the
• 3:45
  country where they'll be force-fed chemicals, addicted
• 3:49
  to drugs like cocaine.
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  They'll have their skulls drilled into their skulls,
• 3:55
  and ultimately they'd all be killed.
• 3:58
  And it's no wonder that the citizens of
• 4:00
  Bainbridge want nothing to do with this, and
• 4:03
  it's clear that what the company is trying
• 4:05
  to do in Bainbridge is not try to
• 4:08
  improve human health or bring quality jobs to
• 4:10
  Bainbridge.
• 4:11
  All they care about is making as much
• 4:13
  money as they can while exploiting an endangered
• 4:17
  species of monkeys.
• 4:19
  So that's why Pete is joining with the
• 4:20
  citizens of Bainbridge to fight this facility so
• 4:23
  that we do not create just this enormous
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  factory farm of monkeys right here in the
• 4:29
  U.S. that are all destined for these
• 4:30
  invasive, traumatic, and deadly experiments.
• 4:34
  Now this has been getting a lot of
• 4:37
  coverage, and that's great because sometimes animal rights
• 4:40
  issues do not get coverage.
• 4:42
  And that's one of the reasons we started
• 4:44
  Unchained TV, because it's outrageous that things happen
• 4:48
  that affect people and animals and the mainstream
• 4:51
  media ignores it.
• 4:52
  But they are not ignoring this issue.
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  So I want to play just one of
• 4:57
  the local news reports, and then we're discuss
• 4:59
  on the other side.
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  The courtroom was full of residents wearing t
• 5:02
  -shirts that read, Stop the Monkey Farm, during
• 5:05
  a hearing on Safer Human Medicine's motion to
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  join in on this civil case.
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  Residents are suing the city of Bainbridge, Decatur
• 5:12
  County, the Decatur County Board of Education, and
• 5:15
  the Board of Assessors for planning to build
• 5:17
  a monkey facility.
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  According to the lawsuit, the government officials voted
• 5:21
  to approve the facility while violating part of
• 5:23
  Georgia's Open Meetings Act.
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  During the hearing Tuesday morning, both parties shared
• 5:27
  their arguments.
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  The attorney representing Bainbridge residents, Rebecca Davis, shared
• 5:32
  why the court should not grant the motion
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  to intervene.
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  I do not believe that the court should
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  grant the motion to intervene.
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  So bring us up to date, Amy.
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  Where exactly is this case?
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  It's something obviously that the residents of Bainbridge
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  do not want.
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  They packed hearings about this saying it was
• 5:56
  done behind their backs.
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  Where does it stand now?
• 6:00
  So yes, so this lawsuit was filed by
• 6:03
  a group of Bainbridge citizens, and it's filed
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  against the city and other agencies because they
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  failed to do, as you mentioned, what's required
• 6:12
  of them by the Georgia Open Meetings Act
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  when they voted to approve this disastrous plan.
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  And right now, the most recent thing that
• 6:22
  happened a couple weeks ago was a hearing
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  in the case because the company is trying
• 6:26
  to wiggle its way and intervene in the
• 6:28
  case and try to be relevant in the
• 6:31
  case when really it's about the citizens and
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  the city and these agencies' role in not
• 6:37
  representing their true interests.
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  And all they did was roll out the
• 6:41
  red carpet for this company.
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  And what the citizens are demanding is saying,
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  your words are not enough.
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  We need to see action.
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  We need our elected officials to admit their
• 6:52
  mistakes and take action to undo them.
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  So while this is in the courts, meanwhile,
• 6:58
  the company hasn't been able to build any
• 7:01
  of this facility, and we are just optimistic
• 7:03
  that they're going to see that this is
• 7:06
  not forward thinking.
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  This is not in the best interest of
• 7:10
  anyone, and they need to abandon this plan
• 7:13
  and invest in real meaningful science that's not
• 7:16
  using animal models.
• 7:18
  Well, let me ask you, Christina, you sent
• 7:21
  me this photo of people lined up outside
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  one of the hearings on this issue, and
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  it's not just a couple of people.
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  It's a lot of people who packed these
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  hearings.
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  What is the general reaction in the town
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  of Bainbridge, which again is about 230 miles
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  south of Atlanta, a close-knit community, and
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  all of a sudden this was presented to
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  them as a fait accompli.
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  How has the town itself reacted?
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  Oh, you're muted.
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  Sorry.
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  First of all, let me just say not
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  only are we just a little bit south
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  of Atlanta, we're only about 38 miles north
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  of Tallahassee, and our Flint River, which is
• 8:17
  another one of our attractions, flows straight into
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  the Gulf.
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  So this is not only a fight for
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  the town, our river, the beautification, wildlife.
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  This also affects the panhandle of the Gulf
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  Coast.
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  So I just want to throw that out
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  because that's a huge factor in all of
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  this as well.
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  But the photos that you shared- Because
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  you're talking about pollution.
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  You're talking about pollution.
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  Tell me about that.
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  Well, I mean, Amy can give you more
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  specifics on the scientific part, I guess, but
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  based on research, we're looking at over 400
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  ,000 gallons of waste to come from this
• 9:01
  facility.
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  And I mean, based on the individuals that
• 9:09
  started Safer Human Medicine, I don't foresee them
• 9:14
  following protocol to transport waste.
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  And our river is literally, you might as
• 9:21
  well say across the street, you know, from
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  the rivers across the street from where they
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  want to build the facility.
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  So I mean, that, you know, it's just,
• 9:32
  it's not rocket science to come to that
• 9:35
  conclusion.
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  But Jane, I wanted to say those photos
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  that you saw, the one of the citizens
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  outside, you can't really see all of the
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  people.
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  That's outside of our local county commissioner's building.
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  That was a county commission meeting, one of
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  the first ones.
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  And you cannot tell, the people were around
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  the corner.
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  We had to close off because the lobby
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  was full, the building was full.
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  People just stood outside and people were like
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  passing the word from the lobby outside to
• 10:07
  people and kind of, you know, going down
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  the line to inform people.
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  That was just one of the county commission
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  meetings.
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  The other photo, that one, yes, that was
• 10:17
  one of the very first city council meetings.
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  And again, this room is on the second
• 10:26
  floor.
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  So outside of there, the lobby area was
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  full, down the stairs, outside.
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  I mean, the meetings have been so full,
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  people can't get in.
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  They're outraged.
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  People are outraged.
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  You know, if this is a farming community,
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  you know, people are really concerned about their
• 10:48
  livelihoods, their property values.
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  You know, I mean, you know, in my
• 10:53
  bio, it says that we have family land
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  of over 100 years.
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  And there's people that have land in their
• 11:01
  family longer.
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  And, you know, they've farmed for decades and
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  decades.
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  You know, their corporate contracts are not going
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  to continue if there's a risk of disease
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  affecting the crop.
• 11:16
  All right.
• 11:17
  Let me say that we have a whole
• 11:20
  bunch of callers lining up.
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  This has hit a nerve.
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  We're going to run through them.
• 11:23
  Sarah in Lufkin, Texas, your question or thought?
• 11:29
  Sarah, I hear.
• 11:32
  Yes.
• 11:36
  Oh, sorry about that.
• 11:38
  Yes.
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  My question is, I hear a lot of
• 11:41
  talk about the residents being really concerned and
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  outraged about this big, massive monkey facility, because
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  it's going to affect their health, it's going
• 11:53
  to affect their property value.
• 11:55
  But is there anything being done to educate
• 11:59
  the residents about why they should be mad,
• 12:03
  like about the animal welfare aspect?
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  Like, are they being taught about the industry
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  and how they can fight against it by
• 12:12
  buying cruelty-free products?
• 12:15
  You know, that kind of education.
• 12:17
  Well, let's go to Amy Meyer, because PETA
• 12:19
  is on the ground there helping out.
• 12:23
  Yes.
• 12:23
  So myself and one of my colleagues have
• 12:26
  been to Bainbridge several times.
• 12:28
  We've been meeting with residents there constantly.
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  And these are smart, compassionate people.
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  They understand the ethical issue, too.
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  I've never met so many people who learned
• 12:40
  so quickly what is at stake here for
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  the animals themselves.
• 12:45
  They absolutely care deeply about the animals themselves.
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  And when they watched the footage of what
• 12:51
  happened at InVigo's beagle breeding facility, when one
• 12:55
  of these men trying to start the monkey
• 12:57
  factory farm was there, they have been appalled.
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  And they have no trust that he's going
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  to do any better with many more times
• 13:07
  monkeys in their town.
• 13:09
  They're absolutely concerned about the animals themselves.
• 13:12
  But it's also, you know, a more direct
• 13:15
  impact to them than it is to other
• 13:17
  people who care about the animals as well,
• 13:19
  because it is impacting them directly if this
• 13:22
  comes to their community.
• 13:24
  But they absolutely have learned so much, are
• 13:26
  so well educated on the topic and on
• 13:29
  the ethical issue, and have really become amazing
• 13:33
  advocates for these monkeys trapped in laboratories across
• 13:36
  the country.
• 13:37
  And before we go to the next caller,
• 13:39
  I want to point out that we have
• 13:41
  a GoFundMe.
• 13:43
  We've posted it in the comments section.
• 13:45
  If you're watching now, you could hopefully copy
• 13:49
  it or just copy and paste it off
• 13:51
  of Facebook.
• 13:52
  We're on all platforms.
• 13:54
  So please help them donate, because PETA's fighting
• 13:58
  it, but they also have a local GoFundMe.
• 14:01
  All right, next caller, Tiffany in Los Angeles,
• 14:04
  your question or thought for our panel on
• 14:06
  stop monkey breeding in Georgia.
• 14:10
  Yes, good afternoon, Jane.
• 14:13
  And thank you, PETA and all who are
• 14:15
  taking this on.
• 14:17
  And I know I was reading something too,
• 14:19
  that one of the CEOs or something was
• 14:21
  related to the Beagle facility that was shut
• 14:25
  down, and that he's faced a lot of
• 14:27
  legal problems.
• 14:29
  But I wanted to ask, what, how, how
• 14:34
  did you discover this, that this was going
• 14:36
  on in the dark?
• 14:37
  Because I'm just thinking they could be planning
• 14:40
  this in any of our cities, and we
• 14:42
  may find out too late.
• 14:44
  How, how are you able to find out
• 14:46
  what was going on?
• 14:47
  Great question.
• 14:49
  Who wants to take it?
• 14:50
  Amy, go.
• 14:52
  Oh, sure.
• 14:53
  And Christina, please chime in.
• 14:55
  If you want to add, PETA actually was
• 14:57
  alerted by some of the local residents who
• 14:59
  discovered this was happening.
• 15:01
  And unfortunately, by the time we learned the
• 15:03
  city had already started steam rolling.
• 15:07
  So it really is hard to know.
• 15:10
  And they intentionally make it hard to know.
• 15:12
  When they were presenting this to the city,
• 15:15
  they called this monkey factory farm operation Project
• 15:18
  Liberty.
• 15:19
  That sounds like a wonderful thing.
• 15:21
  If you just see on paper, they're gonna
• 15:23
  that the city is going to see something
• 15:24
  about a Project Liberty doesn't sound bad.
• 15:27
  But of course, it is.
• 15:29
  And so, you know, I definitely recommend that
• 15:32
  people pay attention to what's happening in their
• 15:35
  own communities, especially this region of the country
• 15:39
  where we've seen some other companies trying to
• 15:41
  set up similar monkey factory farms in Texas.
• 15:45
  We've stopped them in Florida already to keep
• 15:47
  an eye on it.
• 15:48
  And one thing PETA is doing to try
• 15:50
  to stay ahead of it before any cities
• 15:52
  make promises that they shouldn't be keeping and
• 15:55
  that their citizens don't want is doing public
• 15:58
  records requests to agencies in the states.
• 16:01
  And this is something that citizens can do
• 16:03
  to send a public records request to your
• 16:05
  city officials asking if they have any documents
• 16:08
  related to monkey farms, or, you know, any
• 16:13
  kind of non human primate operation coming to
• 16:15
  town, really just to try to be in
• 16:19
  the know about it.
• 16:19
  But PETA is really doing everything we can
• 16:22
  to learn about any other thing, setting up
• 16:24
  and always encourage people to contact us if
• 16:28
  you're hearing anything on the ground, because you're
• 16:30
  the animal's best advocates for in your community,
• 16:33
  you know the most about your community.
• 16:34
  Our next caller, we've got Lindsay and Tarzana,
• 16:37
  your question or thought for our panel.
• 16:40
  Yeah, I mean, I'm just listening and getting
• 16:44
  angrier and angrier.
• 16:46
  I think this has such far reaching effect.
• 16:50
  I realise how the community how much it
• 16:53
  impacts on the community, but you were talking
• 16:55
  about the farmers and the farmers grow our
• 16:58
  food.
• 16:59
  So this is all this poison and all
• 17:02
  of this horrific insanity, this insane torture.
• 17:05
  We know that from studies that it does
• 17:09
  not work on humans, that in the human
• 17:11
  model, many of the drugs fail.
• 17:14
  That's a path in the animal model.
• 17:16
  We know all of this.
• 17:18
  Why is this still going on?
• 17:19
  And how could these officials, how could these
• 17:23
  officials see a line of people around the
• 17:25
  block and still question they have any right
• 17:28
  to put that there or give permission to
• 17:31
  put that there?
• 17:32
  You know, great point.
• 17:35
  Christina, what is the reaction of these people
• 17:38
  who made this happen or trying to make
• 17:41
  this happen?
• 17:42
  They are local residents.
• 17:44
  They didn't fly in from, you know, Mars.
• 17:47
  They live there.
• 17:49
  What kind of blowback are they getting?
• 17:51
  Well, our county commissioners have basically recent and
• 17:56
  they've done a little bit more research and
• 17:59
  they're regretful for their decision.
• 18:02
  As far as our mayor, city council, nothing.
• 18:08
  Absolutely nothing.
• 18:10
  As far as I know from communication with
• 18:15
  PETA between city council, mayor, I don't think
• 18:17
  there's been a whole lot.
• 18:21
  I don't think that, I know that the
• 18:24
  local media has not had any response from
• 18:28
  our local officials.
• 18:32
  It's pretty incredible.
• 18:35
  The board of education has not really responded.
• 18:38
  The development authority, the ones that brought this
• 18:42
  to the table have somewhat resent but not
• 18:46
  really because behind the scenes they continue to
• 18:51
  tell people on the street it's a done
• 18:54
  deal.
• 18:54
  It's still a go.
• 18:56
  You know, there's that PETA is blowing everything
• 18:58
  out of proportion.
• 18:59
  I mean, we have that.
• 19:00
  We have a clip of one of the
• 19:03
  members from the development authority saying that it's
• 19:06
  all PETA's fault.
• 19:08
  PETA's blowing everything out of proportion and they
• 19:10
  pay universities to do this and that, to
• 19:13
  write articles, just to hype everybody up and
• 19:17
  put fear into the community.
• 19:20
  We're not idiots.
• 19:22
  We're not idiots and we're all doing our
• 19:24
  own research.
• 19:26
  You know, it's like Amy said, the people
• 19:29
  here are concerned about the animals welfare as
• 19:32
  well.
• 19:34
  They've done so much research on their own
• 19:37
  and I mean, it's pretty incredible to see
• 19:41
  all likes of people come together and do
• 19:45
  their own research and really work hard.
• 19:48
  I mean, we've been doing this since January
• 19:50
  the 16th.
• 19:51
  We have been boots on the ground, doing
• 19:55
  everything that we can, but the collar, that
• 19:59
  last collar, the crops, that is something that
• 20:04
  really needs to be addressed because you have
• 20:07
  to think about it.
• 20:08
  We grow a lot of cotton.
• 20:10
  We grow a lot of corn.
• 20:12
  We grow a lot of peanuts.
• 20:15
  I mean, there are a lot of crops
• 20:17
  that come from this region and there's, and
• 20:21
  these farms surround the proposed monkey facility.
• 20:26
  Okay.
• 20:27
  I'm going to jump in because we have
• 20:28
  so many callers.
• 20:29
  This has hit a nerve.
• 20:33
  We got four now.
• 20:34
  Nilofar in Dallas, Texas, your question or thought?
• 20:39
  Hi, it sounds like you have a very
• 20:42
  strong case.
• 20:43
  So what's the likelihood of winning it?
• 20:47
  What is the approximate timeline for winning it
• 20:51
  and what can we do outside of the
• 20:55
  Bain County to assist?
• 20:58
  All right, Amy.
• 21:00
  So one thing that everyone can easily do
• 21:04
  is go to peta.org forward slash Bainbridge.
• 21:08
  That's B-A-I-N B-R-I
• 21:10
  -D-G-E.
• 21:12
  And there you can read more about this
• 21:13
  and you can quickly with the click of
• 21:15
  a button email the city officials in Bainbridge
• 21:18
  to echo the concerns of the residents there
• 21:21
  and urge them to stop this disastrous plan.
• 21:25
  And in terms of the lawsuit, I wish
• 21:27
  I was a lawyer and understood how all
• 21:29
  these timelines work.
• 21:30
  It's my understanding that this could take a
• 21:33
  while, but like I said, in the meantime,
• 21:36
  the companies had to have been put on
• 21:38
  hold for now.
• 21:39
  And so, you know, the longer it takes
• 21:42
  while it's on hold, hopefully they'll be sitting
• 21:45
  with it and feeling that this is a
• 21:47
  bad investment.
• 21:48
  It's not worth doing.
• 21:50
  A lot of the companies, biggest companies in
• 21:52
  the U.S. that experiment on monkeys have
• 21:55
  been reducing the number of monkeys in the
• 21:57
  last year that they're experimenting on.
• 22:00
  And these monkeys that they're talking about bringing
• 22:02
  to Bainbridge are an endangered species of monkeys
• 22:06
  now.
• 22:06
  The IUCN has listed them as endangered just
• 22:09
  in 2022.
• 22:11
  It's a terrible idea.
• 22:12
  It's only getting worse.
• 22:13
  And so hopefully they'll just shut down this
• 22:15
  plan altogether before it gets started.
• 22:17
  All right.
• 22:18
  In Dallas, Texas, your question or thought for
• 22:21
  our panel, stop the monkey business in Georgia.
• 22:27
  I'm just so impressed and proud of this
• 22:29
  community coming together and standing up against a
• 22:33
  corporation that puts profits before people.
• 22:37
  Congratulations.
• 22:38
  I'm so proud.
• 22:39
  I wish you all the best.
• 22:40
  What advice, what other additional advice would you
• 22:43
  give other citizens in other cities to organise
• 22:47
  and, you know, work together to, you know,
• 22:52
  fight off, you know, you know, interests that
• 22:57
  don't have our interests.
• 22:59
  How can we organise and be successful like
• 23:02
  you?
• 23:03
  Well, I want to jump in and answer
• 23:06
  that question with an observation.
• 23:07
  It was many years ago.
• 23:09
  I happen to be in Puerto Rico for
• 23:10
  a Hispanic journalist conference when two people came
• 23:15
  up to me very agitated.
• 23:17
  They said, we're from the Puerto Rican Bar
• 23:19
  Association Animal Rights Subcommittee and there is a
• 23:23
  laboratory monkey breeding facility that they've already built
• 23:27
  in a little town called Guayama in Puerto
• 23:29
  Rico.
• 23:30
  And they broke all the rules and they
• 23:32
  built it.
• 23:32
  And we don't think we can stop it.
• 23:34
  And I remember saying, don't say you can't
• 23:36
  stop it until you've tried.
• 23:39
  And PETA got involved and fought this all
• 23:42
  the way up to the Puerto Rican Supreme
• 23:43
  Court.
• 23:44
  And the Puerto Rican Supreme Court ruled that
• 23:46
  the company violated all sorts of regulations and
• 23:50
  it never got to open.
• 23:53
  It's, you know, the same industry that's now
• 23:55
  trying to open in Georgia.
• 23:58
  And it was stopped in Puerto Rico.
• 24:00
  And Amy, you've talked about, it seems like
• 24:03
  they're always trying to open it somewhere.
• 24:06
  Somewhere.
• 24:07
  Yeah.
• 24:08
  And I just want to, you know, I
• 24:10
  echo just my, I've just been so inspired
• 24:13
  by the people in Bainbridge who have been
• 24:15
  coming together, different walks of life, people who
• 24:18
  never in a million years thought that they
• 24:20
  would become friends with a PETA staff member
• 24:23
  who I would consider my friends now.
• 24:26
  I not only want to stop this facility
• 24:28
  because I care so deeply about the monkeys
• 24:30
  it impacts.
• 24:31
  I care about my friends in Bainbridge too,
• 24:33
  who are desperately trying not to get it
• 24:35
  built.
• 24:36
  And they are putting aside other differences and
• 24:38
  all coming together.
• 24:38
  And it's so inspiring.
• 24:40
  And I hope that people can learn from
• 24:41
  that in their own communities to really come
• 24:43
  together, to work together on a focused thing
• 24:47
  to stop it.
• 24:48
  There's lots of ways you can take action
• 24:50
  to be pushing your members of Congress and
• 24:52
  other people to take action faster.
• 24:55
  All right.
• 24:56
  We've got Caitlin in Austin, Texas, your question
• 24:59
  or thought for the No Monkey Business in
• 25:01
  Georgia panel.
• 25:04
  Yeah, I just wanted to first say like,
• 25:06
  I appreciate y'all doing all this work.
• 25:08
  It's really important.
• 25:10
  I also wanted to touch on the fact
• 25:13
  of like, NIH has come out and said
• 25:16
  anywhere between 89 and 95% of these
• 25:19
  trials that are tested on animals don't actually
• 25:23
  work for human clinical trials.
• 25:25
  And so I'm wondering, y'all have anyone
• 25:27
  that is speaking about there that can outreach
• 25:30
  to the public or talk to the people
• 25:31
  involved in trying to get this passed there
• 25:34
  to educate them on their experience with animal
• 25:38
  testing and how it's no longer conducive to
• 25:40
  progress?
• 25:42
  I mean, we all know this.
• 25:45
  And, you know, the problem is covered this
• 25:48
  for many years, and I'm just updating.
• 25:50
  So people want to take action and we're
• 25:53
  getting all these, how do we help?
• 25:54
  How do we help?
• 25:55
  Well, you just go to PETA.org forward
• 25:58
  slash Bainbridge.
• 26:00
  And hopefully somebody who's watching will also post
• 26:03
  the GoFundMe, the local GoFundMe, copy this and
• 26:09
  get it on Facebook so that those who
• 26:12
  want to support that can also go there.
• 26:16
  They need funds there, and they haven't gotten
• 26:18
  funds for the last couple of months.
• 26:20
  So we need funds going in there.
• 26:21
  And I never ask anybody to do something
• 26:24
  that I don't do.
• 26:25
  So as soon as I'm off this broadcast,
• 26:26
  I will be donating.
• 26:27
  I urge you also to donate to this
• 26:30
  GoFundMe page so that the citizens on the
• 26:32
  ground have some support there for the buttons
• 26:35
  and all the things that they're printing up.
• 26:37
  And I'm sure PETA helps them as well.
• 26:39
  So, you know, the truth is that our
• 26:44
  government is what's keeping this going because they're
• 26:49
  funding a lot of these experiments with your
• 26:52
  tax dollars, knowing full well they don't work.
• 26:55
  And PETA has uncovered horror story after horror
• 26:58
  story, way back from the Silver Springs case,
• 27:02
  which was a national shame, all the way
• 27:05
  to things they're finding today with people doing
• 27:08
  just bizarre and stupid experiments, scaring monkeys, ripping
• 27:13
  them away from their mothers and scaring them.
• 27:15
  And it's just, it's mediaeval, it's barbaric.
• 27:19
  And everybody knows that we're in the 21st
• 27:22
  century.
• 27:23
  We have organs on a chip.
• 27:25
  We have so many other ways.
• 27:27
  And they're using literally like 19th century or
• 27:31
  earlier techniques.
• 27:32
  And it's all because it's a big business.
• 27:35
  The universities get a cut, so they want
• 27:38
  to keep doing it.
• 27:39
  The people who are in charge of the
• 27:41
  National Institutes of Health, for the most part,
• 27:43
  are vivid sectors themselves.
• 27:46
  I mean, stop me, Amy, when I'm going
• 27:48
  off the chart.
• 27:50
  Yeah, no, you have it absolutely right, Jane.
• 27:53
  And that's what makes it so hard is
• 27:55
  the people who are making the decisions about
• 27:57
  what, where the money should go, for themselves,
• 28:01
  these, primate or other animal experimenters.
• 28:04
  And so we're seeing change, it's coming slowly,
• 28:07
  but it's happening.
• 28:08
  You know, the number of primates imported into
• 28:11
  the US last year fell dramatically, which is
• 28:14
  so critical, because the primate experimentation industry has
• 28:18
  literally been driving these long-tailed macaques toward
• 28:21
  extinction.
• 28:23
  That's part of why they are now endangered
• 28:25
  is because the US has been pulling about
• 28:28
  30,000 of them every year, for years
• 28:31
  out of Asia and Africa.
• 28:33
  So that's something we can be hopeful about.
• 28:36
  The number dropped drastically last year.
• 28:38
  We need to keep the monkeys where they
• 28:40
  belong with their families in the forest, and
• 28:43
  out of laboratory cages.
• 28:45
  And the change is happening.
• 28:47
  It's slower than we all want.
• 28:48
  And we all need to be working together
• 28:49
  to make it faster.
• 28:50
  All right, Maggie in Sacramento, your question or
• 28:54
  thought for our fantastic Stop the Monkey Business
• 28:57
  in Georgia panel.
• 28:59
  Hello, hello.
• 29:00
  Thank you so much for what you're doing.
• 29:02
  First of all, I feel so connected with
• 29:06
  what you are doing, because actually here in
• 29:08
  Sacramento, we do the same.
• 29:10
  We have UC Davis, they test on monkeys,
• 29:13
  they have 5,000 monkeys here.
• 29:15
  So we try to organise process here at
• 29:17
  Davis and in Sacramento.
• 29:19
  But my question is, how can I physically
• 29:22
  help you?
• 29:23
  What I mean, like, I'm willing to travel
• 29:26
  and stay a week over there and help
• 29:29
  you process and walking from door to door
• 29:31
  and giving people slides, informing them what's happening.
• 29:35
  How can we do it physically?
• 29:36
  Is there any information that we can get
• 29:38
  how to join you and how to, help
• 29:41
  you basically processing it?
• 29:44
  Wow, what an incredible offer, Christina.
• 29:49
  If you could, Jane's already posted the GoFundMe
• 29:53
  account.
• 29:55
  Honestly, that's the biggest help at this point
• 29:58
  right now.
• 29:59
  We have so many lawsuits.
• 30:02
  Things are not on hold, so to speak.
• 30:06
  We are doing protests.
• 30:08
  We're attending every city council meeting, every board
• 30:11
  of education meeting, every development authority meeting, every
• 30:14
  county commission, every local meeting we're attending.
• 30:18
  We've got set groups that attend each meeting.
• 30:24
  And then we also have our protest groups
• 30:25
  that rotate.
• 30:27
  We have our weekly prayer get together at
• 30:31
  the downtown square so that it's visible, because
• 30:36
  City Hall, of course, is right downtown.
• 30:39
  I mean, we're on the ground, but honestly,
• 30:43
  because so many people think that there's nothing
• 30:48
  that we're done, that it's done, that it's
• 30:50
  a done deal.
• 30:51
  And we're constantly, constantly working every single day,
• 30:56
  and it's not a done deal.
• 30:58
  So that's why funds right now, the GoFundMe,
• 31:01
  that is the biggest help.
• 31:06
  Yeah, we're going to put that up again.
• 31:07
  I have a question.
• 31:09
  So you said that some of the local
• 31:11
  officials are like, you know, they're just kind
• 31:15
  of forging ahead, but aren't they elected?
• 31:18
  I mean, if the town is so outraged,
• 31:21
  which you've offered plenty of evidence, a lawsuit,
• 31:24
  giant groups of people showing up to say,
• 31:27
  why are you doing this?
• 31:29
  When's the next election, I guess, is my
• 31:31
  question.
• 31:33
  I don't have that in front of me,
• 31:35
  but I believe 20.
• 31:42
  Oh, you're breaking up just a tad.
• 31:44
  Maybe you could handle that one.
• 31:47
  Well, yeah.
• 31:48
  Amy.
• 31:49
  Yeah, that's something that the locals are paying
• 31:52
  attention to.
• 31:53
  We've even seen some locals running for some
• 31:56
  offices on a platform opposing the monkey farm.
• 32:00
  So there's a lot of that type of
• 32:04
  activism happening there locally.
• 32:06
  And it's really powerful.
• 32:08
  It's a small community.
• 32:09
  It doesn't take switching that many voters to
• 32:12
  this issue.
• 32:14
  And there's a lot of people who are
• 32:15
  very impassioned about this issue.
• 32:18
  So I'm sure that's something that they'll be
• 32:20
  working on in the future election cycles.
• 32:23
  But what I don't understand is, and you're,
• 32:26
  you are breaking up a little bit, I
• 32:27
  would suggest turn off any phones you have
• 32:30
  so you can get a better signal.
• 32:32
  But let me ask you this, Amy.
• 32:35
  I mean, look, what is, what would the
• 32:39
  motivation if you're a public official, and people
• 32:43
  are literally so outraged that they're filing lawsuits
• 32:45
  and they're jamming into these hearings?
• 32:48
  What would your motivation be to have a
• 32:53
  stance that is completely in defiance of what
• 32:57
  these people want?
• 32:59
  I don't really get that.
• 33:02
  Maybe you could talk a little bit about
• 33:04
  the money issues that are here.
• 33:06
  What are the money issues, Amy?
• 33:09
  Yeah, I think you hit the nail on
• 33:12
  the head there, Jane.
• 33:13
  It always boils down to the money, right?
• 33:16
  And what the company had got from the
• 33:20
  city and county was a bond worth $300
• 33:23
  million with an additional $60 million in incentives.
• 33:28
  And the company is promising that it's going
• 33:30
  to build the local economy.
• 33:32
  They're going to create all these great paying
• 33:34
  jobs.
• 33:34
  Look at how much money we can sell
• 33:36
  these monkeys to laboratories for.
• 33:38
  It's going to be a boom to the
• 33:40
  local economy.
• 33:41
  And that's what the city's banking on.
• 33:43
  Like most small cities in America, they're looking
• 33:46
  at what kind of industry they can be
• 33:48
  bringing that is going to last and be
• 33:51
  a boom to the local economy.
• 33:54
  But what PETA and the locals have been
• 33:55
  trying to tell them is even if that's
• 33:57
  all they care about, it's a losing bet.
• 34:01
  This is an industry that is on its
• 34:02
  way out, not ramping up.
• 34:04
  And so it's not even a good bet.
• 34:06
  And frankly, it would be hard to even
• 34:08
  fill these jobs.
• 34:09
  We've seen private laboratories across the country struggling
• 34:13
  to fill basic needs like the veterinary positions
• 34:16
  because they're just not jobs anyone wants to
• 34:19
  do.
• 34:19
  No one wants to have to sit and
• 34:21
  watch these monkeys being tormented in these kinds
• 34:25
  of places where they're kept in such unnatural
• 34:28
  settings that they literally spin around endlessly in
• 34:31
  their cages.
• 34:32
  They do backflips.
• 34:33
  Sometimes they're even biting off their own fingers
• 34:37
  and toes.
• 34:37
  They're driven absolutely mad when they are confined
• 34:41
  in such small spaces that this is not
• 34:43
  an industry any compassionate person wants to be
• 34:47
  involved with.
• 34:48
  So that's what we're trying to convince these
• 34:51
  city officials of still.
• 34:52
  Well, I would like to tell you, and
• 34:54
  I think we've got you back, Christina, that
• 34:56
  I was involved in another battle to stop
• 35:00
  another similar laboratory monkey breeding facility, this one
• 35:04
  in Hendry County, Florida.
• 35:06
  And I got a call because, believe it
• 35:09
  or not, my first job out of college
• 35:12
  was in Fort Myers, Florida, and I had
• 35:14
  kept some connections there.
• 35:16
  And I got a call from a senior
• 35:17
  citizen, wonderful animal rescuer, and she told me
• 35:21
  that they were trying to build another one
• 35:23
  of these giant laboratory monkey breeding facilities in
• 35:25
  Hendry County, which is just north of Fort
• 35:27
  Myers.
• 35:28
  So we went there and it was a
• 35:30
  very similar situation where the local government, there
• 35:36
  was this person who had come in and
• 35:38
  they were sort of like economic development people,
• 35:41
  right?
• 35:42
  Now, again, it seemed like it was something
• 35:44
  that couldn't be stopped, but it did get
• 35:46
  stopped.
• 35:47
  Not to say that there isn't another facility
• 35:49
  there now, but that was pre-existing, but
• 35:51
  they wanted to really, really expand it massively.
• 35:55
  And what happened was there was this meeting
• 35:59
  of all the economic development councils in Florida,
• 36:02
  and they were all supposed to do their
• 36:05
  presentations.
• 36:05
  And we all went, we bought a table
• 36:07
  and we went.
• 36:08
  And we sat there and there was this
• 36:09
  one young woman who didn't want to go.
• 36:11
  She said, I'm not into protesting at all.
• 36:13
  And we said, well, you know, if you
• 36:15
  want to come, come.
• 36:16
  If you don't, don't.
• 36:17
  And we're all just sitting there.
• 36:18
  And the Hendry County guy got up and
• 36:21
  did his whole presentation, never mentioning the laboratory
• 36:26
  monkey breeding facility plan.
• 36:28
  That somehow outraged the woman who was reluctant
• 36:32
  at first.
• 36:33
  She rushed up to the front of the
• 36:34
  stage, jumped on the stage and said, these
• 36:38
  people are hiding what they're trying to do.
• 36:40
  Words to that effect, all hell broke loose.
• 36:43
  There were congressmen in the audience.
• 36:45
  It became just a wild scene.
• 36:50
  Reporters were coming up and asking me for
• 36:52
  my video because I ran up and did
• 36:54
  a phone video and it killed it.
• 36:58
  It killed it because it was a shameful
• 37:01
  experience at this highly prestigious conference.
• 37:05
  We hadn't even been planning to protest.
• 37:07
  We were just there to see what was
• 37:08
  going on.
• 37:09
  But this woman got so upset.
• 37:11
  She literally jumped up on the stage.
• 37:14
  And you know what?
• 37:15
  God bless her.
• 37:16
  Because that one action did more to galvanise
• 37:21
  or to show the powers that be that
• 37:25
  people were really upset.
• 37:27
  So I always say never.
• 37:29
  And the guy cleared out.
• 37:31
  We went to try to contact him in
• 37:33
  Hendry County.
• 37:33
  We couldn't even find him.
• 37:35
  Literally, he had cleaned out his house and
• 37:38
  we drove up and it was empty.
• 37:40
  So I bring you that story because I
• 37:44
  say never give up.
• 37:47
  There will be a point where it will
• 37:50
  become politically untenable for this to move forward.
• 37:53
  Now that we've got you back, what are
• 37:55
  your thoughts on that, Christina?
• 37:56
  We're not.
• 37:58
  And thank God for PETA.
• 37:59
  It would not be where we are right
• 38:02
  now if it had not been for PETA.
• 38:04
  And we're not giving up.
• 38:07
  Sometimes you wake up and you feel like
• 38:09
  you're beating your head against the wall.
• 38:11
  Sometimes we are beating our head against the
• 38:12
  wall.
• 38:13
  But we're not going to stop.
• 38:15
  And regardless of the few local officials that
• 38:19
  continue to say that they're not going to
• 38:22
  stop and that this will continue, we're not
• 38:25
  going to allow it.
• 38:26
  We're just going to keep fighting.
• 38:27
  We're going to keep doing what we have
• 38:29
  to do and we're not going to let
• 38:31
  it happen.
• 38:32
  I there's too much farmland, the Gulf Coast.
• 38:37
  There's too much at stake and we're not
• 38:40
  going to happen.
• 38:43
  I have to say, and being from a
• 38:47
  small town, it makes sense to me, but
• 38:50
  I'm sure others from larger cities, it might
• 38:54
  not.
• 38:55
  But the attitude, the audacity of our
• 39:04
  city officials that there's no heart.
• 39:11
  I mean, it's almost like it's money.
• 39:15
  It's only money to them.
• 39:17
  And I don't know.
• 39:19
  I just, I can't grasp that.
• 39:22
  And that's why we've all just, you know,
• 39:25
  we've got our boots on and our gloves
• 39:28
  and we're not going to stop.
• 39:30
  And you can see the GoFundMe right here.
• 39:34
  Sorry, it's such a long URL, but if
• 39:37
  you can copy it, do a screen grab
• 39:40
  and then copy it down.
• 39:42
  We really are urging people, those here today,
• 39:46
  to help this local group fight this monkey
• 39:51
  breeding facility.
• 39:52
  And so that's another thing.
• 39:54
  So I want to recap and review.
• 39:57
  Has the judge made the decision as to
• 40:00
  whether the company involved can be part of
• 40:04
  the lawsuit?
• 40:05
  What's happening with that?
• 40:09
  Uh, yeah, Amy.
• 40:11
  No, the judge has not issued a decision
• 40:14
  on that part of this case yet.
• 40:16
  So it could still take a few more
• 40:18
  weeks for the judge to decide if they'll
• 40:20
  let the company be involved in the lawsuit.
• 40:23
  And then, of course, it will be even
• 40:25
  longer for the entire lawsuit to wrap up.
• 40:28
  So that will be the next step, though,
• 40:30
  is the judge deciding if the company gets
• 40:33
  to intervene in the case.
• 40:35
  All right.
• 40:36
  And we've got a report here from a
• 40:38
  local news reporter that actually shows really how
• 40:45
  huge this facility would be.
• 40:48
  It hasn't been built, but you'll see.
• 40:50
  AJ Douglas live at the Decatur County Superior
• 40:52
  Courthouse.
• 40:53
  I'm tracking a major legal battle as economic
• 40:56
  development continues to keep this community on edge.
• 41:00
  Passing by court in Decatur County Tuesday morning.
• 41:02
  You may have seen a colourful display like
• 41:04
  this one.
• 41:05
  Neighbours in my community continue standing against a
• 41:08
  proposed primate breeding facility.
• 41:10
  The economic development project drove a small group
• 41:13
  of neighbours to file a lawsuit against leaders
• 41:15
  in Bainbridge and multiple agencies in Decatur County.
• 41:19
  The reality is this is a case about
• 41:21
  the Open Meetings Act.
• 41:23
  It is not about the bond validation.
• 41:25
  The Open Meetings Act.
• 41:26
  That's what Rebecca Davis argues multiple leaders violated
• 41:29
  back in December when the economic deal with
• 41:31
  Safer Human Medicine got the green light.
• 41:34
  Davis represents a handful of Decatur County neighbours
• 41:36
  who decided to take their grievances to court.
• 41:39
  Their lawsuit says neighbours weren't given enough information
• 41:43
  about the project before it moved forward.
• 41:46
  Neighbours, including Laura White and Verna Merritt.
• 41:48
  They both were in the courtroom watching Tuesday
• 41:51
  morning.
• 41:51
  I was praying that our Lord God would
• 41:54
  intervene in his will to be done.
• 41:57
  It was an honour to be able to
• 41:59
  be here at this court case and quite
• 42:02
  a experience.
• 42:04
  So let me ask you, Christina, that's a
• 42:08
  huge facility.
• 42:09
  The bottom line with that report, which was
• 42:12
  pretty well done, I'm sure she only had
• 42:14
  a very short amount of time to put
• 42:15
  it together, so kudos to her, is that
• 42:19
  they did it behind your back.
• 42:21
  Tell us about that.
• 42:24
  Basically, in January, we were, a group of
• 42:31
  people got together because we saw the Project
• 42:36
  Liberty on an agenda and started doing research
• 42:41
  on- What about me?
• 42:47
  You broke up again.
• 42:49
  Pick it up.
• 42:50
  Pick it up over there, Amy.
• 42:51
  Pick it up on what happened there.
• 42:53
  So the way I'm seeing it is they
• 42:56
  call this Project Liberty, which is just Orwellian.
• 43:01
  You're going to put 30,000 monkeys in
• 43:03
  cages and you're going to call it Project
• 43:06
  Liberty.
• 43:07
  Okay.
• 43:08
  Think about that for a second.
• 43:10
  Then they see this thing called Project Liberty
• 43:14
  on an agenda item and then what happens?
• 43:19
  Yeah.
• 43:19
  They start paying attention.
• 43:21
  Actually, one of the residents even went to
• 43:24
  one of the hearings where they were moving
• 43:27
  to approve this bond process.
• 43:30
  From there, the local reporters started reporting on
• 43:34
  it and it really just exploded in the
• 43:37
  local community because at that point, the lid
• 43:39
  was off.
• 43:40
  People understood what they started to understand, what
• 43:43
  was coming to town and doing their own
• 43:45
  research about what this would mean for their
• 43:48
  community and the potential for zoonotic disease risks
• 43:52
  that come with these monkeys imported with severely
• 43:56
  immunocompromised bodies and the waste that they generate
• 44:00
  and then learning who these executives are in
• 44:04
  this company and their history with other companies
• 44:08
  importing monkeys that have been experiencing lots of
• 44:14
  violations of US law and apparently international law
• 44:19
  with these companies bringing in monkeys and experimenting
• 44:21
  on them.
• 44:22
  They reached out to PETA for help as
• 44:25
  we were learning about it and we started
• 44:27
  working together.
• 44:30
  Yeah.
• 44:31
  You know what?
• 44:32
  PETA has always been, in both of the
• 44:34
  other cases that I covered, the one in
• 44:36
  Puerto Rico and the one in Hendry County,
• 44:38
  PETA was there front and centre.
• 44:41
  In fact, with the one in Hendry County,
• 44:43
  just as this was developing, PETA had done
• 44:47
  an undercover investigation with video at a nearby
• 44:51
  laboratory breeding facility, laboratory primate breeding facility, and
• 44:56
  that created shockwaves.
• 44:58
  It was in the news.
• 45:00
  One funny thing I want to say was
• 45:02
  that just as is happening in Bainbridge, the
• 45:06
  powers that be in Hendry County that were
• 45:09
  pushing for this ginormous laboratory monkey breeding facility,
• 45:12
  they wanted to become the bio farming capital
• 45:15
  of the world.
• 45:16
  It's all coming back to me.
• 45:18
  They said, well, these are radical animal rights
• 45:21
  extremists who are trying to stop this.
• 45:24
  My friend who was in her 80s brought
• 45:28
  all her friends over to the hearing and
• 45:32
  they were all literally almost entirely a large
• 45:35
  group of senior citizens in tennis shoes, some
• 45:38
  of them in 80s and 85.
• 45:41
  They were the cutest group.
• 45:43
  I remember looking at the reporter going, look
• 45:46
  at your radical animal rights activists here, just
• 45:50
  local residents in their 80s and 70s in
• 45:54
  tennis shoes.
• 45:55
  They always try that, Amy.
• 45:58
  They always go for that, these are radicals,
• 46:00
  when these are really people who live in
• 46:02
  the community who very reasonably don't want a
• 46:07
  ginormous monkey breeding facility in their homes.
• 46:10
  That's exactly right, Jane.
• 46:12
  They always paint everyone as radical extremists if
• 46:15
  you care about animals.
• 46:18
  They always paint themselves as people who are
• 46:21
  saving our children.
• 46:22
  It's just not the case.
• 46:25
  What's even more offensive to me when this
• 46:27
  company says that is that they don't even
• 46:29
  live in Bainbridge.
• 46:30
  They're bringing all these problems to a community
• 46:33
  that they don't even live in.
• 46:34
  They live in their mansion up in the
• 46:37
  New England area.
• 46:39
  This isn't even their community to be disturbing.
• 46:42
  They have no sense of what this community
• 46:44
  wants and needs because they haven't even bothered
• 46:47
  to spend time getting to be on the
• 46:49
  ground and getting to know these people.
• 46:51
  If they did, they would meet people like
• 46:53
  Christina and understand what their values are and
• 46:56
  what they want their town to be.
• 46:58
  Their town was on the right trajectory having
• 47:00
  all these great improvements and all these great
• 47:03
  investments in their local downtown before this happened.
• 47:06
  They want to see more of that, of
• 47:08
  developing Bainbridge to a place that's friendly for
• 47:11
  families and a fun place to be, not
• 47:14
  a place that brings in dangerous monkey breeding
• 47:17
  facilities.
• 47:19
  Especially because we see right now with the
• 47:22
  weather in Georgia, it's just such a dangerous
• 47:25
  place to be building this kind of facility
• 47:28
  where monkeys could escape.
• 47:31
  The 400,000 gallons of wastewater they're producing
• 47:35
  every day could be seeping into the water
• 47:37
  and the soil that the farmers rely on.
• 47:39
  It's just such a bad deal all around.
• 47:42
  And you brought up a very interesting point.
• 47:45
  I have covered this too as a reporter,
• 47:48
  monkeys who escape.
• 47:49
  These animals are very smart.
• 47:51
  And when you talk about 30,000 monkeys,
• 47:54
  oh my gosh, there have been many, many,
• 47:59
  many escapes from facilities that breed monkeys for
• 48:04
  laboratory experimentation.
• 48:07
  In fact, I'm just going to say it,
• 48:08
  facilities that breed monkeys to be tortured in
• 48:11
  laboratories.
• 48:13
  Tell us a little bit about that, Amy.
• 48:15
  Yeah, like you said, they're extremely smart animals.
• 48:19
  It can happen.
• 48:20
  And it has happened at some of the
• 48:21
  most secure places in the country.
• 48:24
  So to think that it wouldn't happen here
• 48:26
  is just reckless, frankly.
• 48:29
  And beyond even the animals themselves getting out,
• 48:31
  we know that these animals, these monkeys are
• 48:34
  coming into the country.
• 48:36
  They would have to import them from Asia
• 48:38
  and Africa first before they could do any
• 48:40
  breeding, which I don't understand how they would
• 48:43
  even do that because there's so like, the
• 48:46
  number of monkeys left is just dwindling.
• 48:49
  But they come in and they can harbour
• 48:51
  dangerous pathogens that can cross over to not
• 48:55
  only humans, but to other animals.
• 48:57
  And so their neighbours with animals next to
• 49:01
  it on these properties are really concerned about
• 49:03
  their own animals too.
• 49:05
  And of course, their children who'd be playing
• 49:07
  right next door to these places.
• 49:09
  It's just, there's just too many potential hazards
• 49:14
  to this facility coming in way more than
• 49:17
  any potential promise they're trying to get out
• 49:19
  of it other than money for themselves.
• 49:22
  All right, so where are we here?
• 49:24
  Because we've already done this story once.
• 49:27
  And I can tell you that Unchained TV,
• 49:30
  which is the world's only 100% plant
• 49:33
  -based animal rights streaming television network, you see
• 49:37
  it right behind me on my Samsung TV.
• 49:40
  You can download it using an Amazon Fire
• 49:42
  Stick, a Roku device, or an Apple TV
• 49:44
  device.
• 49:45
  We're going to stay on top of this
• 49:46
  story.
• 49:47
  And I want to give kudos to the
• 49:49
  local news down there in Bainbridge because a
• 49:52
  lot of times these stories don't get the
• 49:54
  coverage.
• 49:55
  But those reporters, there were two reporters who
• 49:58
  did reports on this, they did a really
• 50:00
  good job.
• 50:01
  And I certainly would suggest, Christina, that you
• 50:04
  keep them up to date with every single
• 50:06
  thing you do.
• 50:07
  Because having been a local news reporter, my
• 50:10
  first job was in Fort Myers, Florida, many
• 50:12
  years ago, I would get calls from people,
• 50:15
  oh, there's a story.
• 50:16
  Hey, I'm going to pitch that story.
• 50:18
  I'm going to go cover it if I
• 50:20
  get the okay to cover it.
• 50:22
  And that's creating relationships with the news organisations
• 50:27
  down there.
• 50:28
  So anytime you're doing something, turn it into
• 50:31
  a media event.
• 50:33
  That's really an important thing to do.
• 50:36
  So let's see, can we get a final
• 50:37
  thought from Christina?
• 50:40
  Am I here?
• 50:41
  Yep.
• 50:42
  Yeah.
• 50:43
  I touch base with our local media, our
• 50:46
  reporters, at least twice a week.
• 50:49
  So we're good friends now.
• 50:51
  So we stay in touch with everything weekly.
• 50:56
  And we're, our story is actually international.
• 51:00
  It's all over.
• 51:01
  So I'm grateful for that.
• 51:03
  And thank you, Jane, for everything that you're
• 51:06
  doing for us.
• 51:07
  And I mean, this is just going to
• 51:10
  just bump us up another notch to put
• 51:14
  us out there.
• 51:14
  And we appreciate everything.
• 51:16
  We appreciate PETA.
• 51:17
  And everybody in this town that has really
• 51:20
  just put it out there.
• 51:23
  You know, it's really amazing to see everybody
• 51:27
  coming together.
• 51:29
  And you were not stopping.
• 51:31
  You were texting me that you've had four
• 51:34
  near tornado warnings in this year.
• 51:38
  You've had flood issues.
• 51:39
  So that also impacts, my gosh.
• 51:43
  The flood warning, we've also had, the river
• 51:45
  has, we've had three near floods from our,
• 51:51
  from the local river.
• 51:52
  So, you know, and the facility, proposed facility
• 51:54
  site is right across the street, basically from
• 51:58
  the river.
• 51:59
  And this river is known to flood.
• 52:02
  So, you know, for all those reasons, I
• 52:06
  certainly think you have a much better shot
• 52:09
  than the naysayers are suggesting.
• 52:12
  I mean, when there's this kind of opposition,
• 52:14
  there is no such thing as a done
• 52:16
  deal.
• 52:17
  And one of the reports said, we only
• 52:20
  have a couple of seconds left, Amy, that
• 52:22
  some of the agencies involved have regretted it
• 52:26
  and said they are no longer in favour.
• 52:30
  That's right.
• 52:30
  You know, they at first were just hearing
• 52:33
  this company's rosy idea of what this would
• 52:36
  be.
• 52:36
  And when they learned the truth, they, and
• 52:38
  when they heard from their own constituents and
• 52:41
  their own people who were their teachers growing
• 52:44
  up telling them that they're disappointed in their
• 52:46
  decisions, it really made them sit back and
• 52:48
  reflect and regret their decisions.
• 52:51
  And so hopefully we see more of that
• 52:53
  from the city officials.
• 52:55
  That's where we need it.
• 52:56
  And we encourage all concerned citizens to keep
• 52:59
  demanding answers because this is an industry that
• 53:02
  thrives in the dark.
• 53:03
  They try to stay in secrecy and it's
• 53:07
  time to keep exposing them.
• 53:09
  We're so grateful to the people of Bainbridge
• 53:10
  for doing that.
• 53:11
  Well, we're going to stay on top of
• 53:13
  it.
• 53:14
  Please donate to the GoFundMe and support PETA
• 53:18
  and go in and check out all the
• 53:20
  information.
• 53:21
  This is a global issue.
• 53:23
  And now a plug for our streaming network.
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• 53:28
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• 53:28
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