Latest / UNCHAINEDTV'S Truth Files with Jane Velez-Mitchell / UnchainedTV: Help PETA Stop Massive Monkey Prison in Georgia!
Transcript
- 0:00All hands on deck if you love animals
- 0:02and hate cruelty.
- 0:03PETA is breaking the story.
- 0:05They've learned of plans to build a colossal
- 0:07monkey holding and monkey breeding facility in Bainbridge,
- 0:12Georgia, a small town of less than 15
- 0:14,000 people about 40 miles north of Tallahassee,
- 0:17Florida.
- 0:18The planned facility would be absolutely massive.
- 0:21It would be the largest monkey holding facility
- 0:23outside of Asia.
- 0:26This proposed operation would hold 30,000 monkeys.
- 0:30That's two monkeys for every city resident.
- 0:33And of course, it would be horrifically cruel
- 0:36and inflict terrible damage on already endangered monkey
- 0:40populations worldwide.
- 0:42And the good news is the people of
- 0:44Bainbridge are standing up and saying, no way.
- 0:48We do not want to risk disease throughout
- 0:50the United States.
- 0:51We do not want ecological disaster for our
- 0:54residents and our surrounding community.
- 0:56There you see some of the local residents
- 0:58who are manning a table.
- 1:02There you see some other local residents who
- 1:04are showing up with signs at hearings saying,
- 1:08stop the monkey farm.
- 1:09They are out there protesting.
- 1:12And some of the residents have filed a
- 1:15lawsuit as well.
- 1:16So we are going to go straight out
- 1:18to Kathy Guillermo, who is the Senior Vice
- 1:22President of Laboratory Investigations for People for the
- 1:26Ethical Treatment of Animals.
- 1:27Kathy, what is the latest on this horror?
- 1:31Well, the local residents are putting up a
- 1:34really good fight and they've got some of
- 1:36the officials on their side.
- 1:38Some of the officials have acknowledged that things
- 1:40were done wrong.
- 1:41It wasn't handled properly.
- 1:42And yet the development authority and the city
- 1:45of Bainbridge are still apparently backing this proposal.
- 1:49So the fight is not over.
- 1:51So we mentioned that there was a lawsuit
- 1:53and it's quite a long and involved lawsuit.
- 1:56Will you tell us what happens with that?
- 2:00Where does that stand?
- 2:02Well, this company, Safer Human Medicine, which is
- 2:05barely a company, you know, less than a
- 2:07year old, kind of steamrolled quietly through town,
- 2:11persuaded some officials, it appears, to back this
- 2:14proposal they had for this massive monkey facility.
- 2:18They called a meeting of the various departments,
- 2:21the tax assessors, the county board of commissioners,
- 2:23the city, the board of education, and they
- 2:27put this proposal to a vote.
- 2:28Well, it turns out that open meetings laws
- 2:32were violated in that committee meeting.
- 2:34They didn't put out a proper notice.
- 2:36They were all kinds of irregularities with it.
- 2:39So the lawsuit alleges that the contracts that
- 2:43were approved, that the proposal that was approved
- 2:45by the officials are illegal and should not
- 2:49be honoured.
- 2:52And that's what the lawsuit's about.
- 2:53So far, the county and the board of
- 2:56tax assessors is agreeing with that, but the
- 2:58city and the board of education are not.
- 3:01Wow.
- 3:02So this lawsuit, could this lawsuit stop it
- 3:06in its tracks or at least postpone it?
- 3:10Because if there's pending litigation and allegations of
- 3:14illegality by local government officials and how they
- 3:17handled this, how can they legally go ahead
- 3:20with it, Kathy?
- 3:21Yeah, that's such a great question.
- 3:23I think it could stop it in its
- 3:24tracks.
- 3:25It really could, because if they can't honour
- 3:27the $60 million in tax incentives they offered
- 3:31to this company, then the company is going
- 3:33to be hard pressed to want to go
- 3:34forward with it.
- 3:36What is really complicating this is that there
- 3:39is a bond validation measure that has already
- 3:43been approved by the court in Georgia, and
- 3:47it's very hard to stop those.
- 3:49The locals are trying their best, the district
- 3:51attorney is trying, but it's very difficult to
- 3:53stop these.
- 3:54So we really need the city and the
- 3:57board of education to come together and say
- 3:59to this company, well, if you're coming here,
- 4:01you're not getting the $60 million in tax
- 4:03incentive, we're not building your wastewater treatment plant,
- 4:06we're not doing your lobbying, and we're not
- 4:08going to smooth the way for you to
- 4:10abuse tens of thousands of monkeys in our
- 4:12backyard.
- 4:13All right, we've got callers lining up.
- 4:17Paige in Los Angeles, your question or thought
- 4:19for Kathy Guillermo Fida.
- 4:22Are you saying that taxpayer dollars are paying
- 4:26for this cruelty?
- 4:28How is this still possible that this is
- 4:32acceptable?
- 4:33And why are we not using humans now
- 4:36who willingly will bring themselves to this cruelty
- 4:41or testing?
- 4:43Why don't we use humans?
- 4:45That's my question.
- 4:47Yeah, you raised such an important question is
- 4:49why are we even using monkeys?
- 4:52That's right.
- 4:53And I don't think, frankly, monkeys are going
- 4:54to be used for all that much longer.
- 4:56We know Charles River Laboratories, which is where
- 4:59one of the executives of this new company
- 5:01used to work, they told shareholders that they
- 5:04had a 23% or 25% decrease
- 5:08in the number of monkeys used last year
- 5:10for testing, because the pharmaceutical companies didn't want
- 5:14them.
- 5:15So we already know there are ways to
- 5:16do this that are better.
- 5:17I think this was a really bad business
- 5:20plan that for some reason that I don't
- 5:22really understand the development authority of Decatur County
- 5:26got behind and steamrolled through.
- 5:29Well, come on, you know, we've been down
- 5:32this road before many years ago.
- 5:35I remember I happened to be in Puerto
- 5:37Rico for a conference when two women who
- 5:42were attorneys from the Puerto Rican Buyer Association
- 5:44Animal Law Subcommittee, I remember that, came up
- 5:47to me and said, oh my gosh, they've
- 5:49built this giant massive monkey breeding facility in
- 5:52a little town in Puerto Rico called, I
- 5:55think it was Guyama, or something like that,
- 5:57and we can't stop it.
- 5:58I said, never say you can't stop it
- 6:00until you've tried.
- 6:02And PETA was amazing on that, fought it
- 6:06all the way up to the Puerto Rican
- 6:07Supreme Court, and it was not allowed to
- 6:10open.
- 6:11That was a huge battle.
- 6:12You remember that well, Kathy.
- 6:14Is this a similar situation?
- 6:17You know, I think it is.
- 6:19I think this is people profiteering on the
- 6:23backs of these animals, hoping that the so
- 6:25-called monkey shortage in the United States is
- 6:27going to line their pockets, because monkeys are
- 6:29now selling for $15,000 a piece.
- 6:32I don't know where they're going to get
- 6:33these monkeys, but that's their plan.
- 6:35And I do think it's the same situation.
- 6:37I do think these things can be stopped.
- 6:40And you know, when you have more than
- 6:416,000 people in Decatur County who come
- 6:45together to stop this, who are working on
- 6:47it actively every day, I don't think that
- 6:50can be ignored.
- 6:51I'm sorry to say that the two senators
- 6:53from the state of Georgia, Senators Ossock and
- 6:56Warnock, have not made a statement about it.
- 7:00I think that's a shame.
- 7:01But I also think that the citizens of
- 7:04any county and any state are far more
- 7:07powerful together than any company or any single
- 7:10legislator.
- 7:11Well, I mean, this is going to destroy
- 7:12property values.
- 7:14I'm sure that's the fear of these fine
- 7:16folks who were there at the hearing.
- 7:18This is their little quaint little town in
- 7:22Georgia, and now they're going to have this
- 7:2330,000 monkeys, two monkeys for every person.
- 7:27And imagine the excrement, and imagine the water
- 7:31use, and imagine everything, not to mention that
- 7:34monkeys do escape from facilities like this.
- 7:37We've seen it before.
- 7:39This is an outrage.
- 7:40I want to put up a banner.
- 7:41If you want to help get involved, just
- 7:43go to PETA.org forward slash Bainbridge, PETA
- 7:48.org forward slash Bainbridge.
- 7:51We emailed all the city officials whose emails
- 7:55we could get asking them for comment, did
- 7:57not hear back by deadline.
- 7:59But we invite any of the corporations that
- 8:03are involved as well as any local county
- 8:06or state officials or federal officials, for that
- 8:09matter, on at any time.
- 8:11All right, the lines are popping.
- 8:13People are upset about this.
- 8:14Nilo Farr in Dallas, Texas, your question or
- 8:17thought?
- 8:19Hi.
- 8:20Off-topic comments first.
- 8:23I watched the documentary par excellence, The Failed
- 8:27Experiments, and plan on a watch party in
- 8:30the near future.
- 8:31Question regarding the massive monkey prison that may
- 8:35be launched in Georgia.
- 8:37Will caged, raped, and bred individuals be designed
- 8:41to last for regulatory purposes, or else be
- 8:45used for curiosity experiments, fleecing the taxpayer to
- 8:49the tune of $20 billion with a B,
- 8:53US dollar per annum?
- 8:55Such a great question.
- 8:57If I might just jump in there, Jane.
- 8:59There are no regulatory requirements for monkeys anymore.
- 9:02Since the passage of the FDA Modernisation Act
- 9:052.0 last year, the FDA has the
- 9:09authority to approve medications without the use of
- 9:12animals entirely.
- 9:14Contrary to the lies told by this new
- 9:16company, monkeys were never specifically required for drug
- 9:20testing.
- 9:21There are no real reasons anymore to use
- 9:24these animals, and certainly scientifically, no necessity for
- 9:28it.
- 9:28Thank you for mentioning The Failed Experiments.
- 9:30It's our new docuseries about animal experimentation.
- 9:33We're really proud of it.
- 9:35Wow, can't wait to watch that.
- 9:37All right, Michelle in Los Angeles, your question
- 9:39or thought for Kathy Guillermo, Senior Vice President
- 9:42of Laboratory Investigations for PETA.
- 9:46Thank you so much for having me on.
- 9:49This is horrific and shocking.
- 9:51I've never heard about this.
- 9:53I know PETA is out there getting the
- 9:55message out, but is there a way?
- 9:57Is the government going to be stepping in?
- 10:00How are we getting the message out, and
- 10:02how can we help?
- 10:05Well, the sad fact is I'll jump in
- 10:06and say the government is often the problem,
- 10:09but you take it away, Kathy.
- 10:11Yeah, that's right.
- 10:12The government is complicit in the use of
- 10:14monkeys.
- 10:14In fact, the Centres for Disease Control, which
- 10:18oversees the quarantine of imported monkeys, is a
- 10:21massive monkey experimenter itself.
- 10:23We have an issue with the fact that
- 10:26the government hires companies like this to buy
- 10:29monkeys from.
- 10:30They put them on contract, Charles River Laboratories,
- 10:32for example.
- 10:33It has multiple contracts with the U.S.
- 10:35government, so the government's definitely complicit.
- 10:38This situation in Georgia has made national and
- 10:42international headlines, but if you missed it, definitely
- 10:45go to PETA.org, and you can take
- 10:47action there because it's a national issue.
- 10:49It's not as though there are going to
- 10:50be 30,000 monkeys who go to this
- 10:52facility and that's that.
- 10:53There are going to be thousands of monkeys
- 10:55going in and out of this facility.
- 10:57They're going to be trucked across the United
- 10:59States.
- 11:00They may be passing through the states that
- 11:02you're in on their way to laboratories.
- 11:04We know monkeys bring disease in, no fault
- 11:06of their own.
- 11:07These stressed animals, many of them ripped out
- 11:09of their own forest homes, and these diseases
- 11:11are transmissible to humans, so it's a huge
- 11:14national concern as well as a local and
- 11:17state one.
- 11:18All right, our next caller, Tanya in Dallas,
- 11:20Texas.
- 11:20Your question or thought for Kathy Guillermo of
- 11:22People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
- 11:26Hi, I was wondering what is the background
- 11:28of the group that's building, going to be
- 11:30operating this facility, trying to operate this facility?
- 11:35Well, I think dastardly would be the word
- 11:38that I would use.
- 11:39The man who is going to be or
- 11:41is the CEO of Safer Human Medicine used
- 11:44to be the vice president and chief operating
- 11:46officer at, wait for it, the InVegal Beagle
- 11:49facility in Virginia, which was exposed in a
- 11:53PETA undercover investigation, eventually investigated by the U
- 11:56.S. Department of Justice, was compelled to close
- 11:59down, agreed to close down under threat of
- 12:01federal lawsuit, and released 4,000 beagles for
- 12:04adoption.
- 12:04So he hasn't exactly got a great track
- 12:07record.
- 12:08One of the other three people involved comes
- 12:10from Charles River Laboratories, where he was an
- 12:13executive in charge of importing monkeys.
- 12:16Let me just remind our audience, in case
- 12:17they don't know, Charles River is under investigation
- 12:20for possibly illegally importing monkeys into the U
- 12:25.S., and they're under investigation by not only
- 12:28the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department
- 12:30of Justice, but the U.S. Securities and
- 12:32Exchange Commission for alleged irregularities.
- 12:35So it's a very checkered past these people
- 12:37bring to it.
- 12:38And I would like to play a clip
- 12:40provided by PETA that talks about, essentially, this
- 12:46is one of the people who is running
- 12:49this company that wants to open this monkey
- 12:52breeding facility.
- 12:53Here's what he told the people of Bainbridge,
- 12:55and then you can respond to it.
- 12:58So COVID happened, and when you produce beagles,
- 13:03typically they're used at 69 months for the
- 13:06research.
- 13:06So there was almost zero demand for canines,
- 13:10right?
- 13:10We could have, and then totally legal, we
- 13:14could have euthanised all of those dogs, right?
- 13:16And I said, no, we didn't try and
- 13:20make money on it.
- 13:22All right.
- 13:23What's your take on that recorded conversation?
- 13:29That was a bald-faced lie, a bald
- 13:32-faced lie.
- 13:33For years, that facility had treated those dogs
- 13:35as little more than commodities to be sold,
- 13:38which is what they were.
- 13:39Hundreds of puppies dying, terrible teeth, beagles crammed
- 13:44together in cages, barking their heads off because
- 13:46they're just so miserable, untreated veterinary conditions.
- 13:50It was a mess, and it was a
- 13:51mess on his watch.
- 13:53So to come on to the video that
- 13:56was recorded or to say to the people
- 13:58of Bainbridge, hey, it wasn't our fault, it
- 14:00was the pandemic, outright lie.
- 14:04Wow.
- 14:05Okay.
- 14:06Lindsay in Tarzana, your question or thought for
- 14:09Kathy Guillermo of People for the Ethical Treatment
- 14:12of Animals.
- 14:15Lindsay?
- 14:16Can you hear me?
- 14:19Yes.
- 14:21I just wanted to restate, I had the
- 14:24opportunity to interview Dr. Lisa Engel Jones from
- 14:28PETA, and she talked about, we talked about
- 14:31the truck accident and the individual that went
- 14:35up to and opened the curtain thinking they
- 14:37were cats and got a face full of
- 14:41monkeys, a spittle in their face, and then
- 14:43they had to go and be tested, and
- 14:46they're still, they still can have disease as
- 14:50a result of that.
- 14:51It's so unhealthy for the public.
- 14:54Animal testing fails in the human model.
- 14:56Why are we still doing it?
- 14:58We really, everyone, please help by taking action
- 15:02on this.
- 15:03Thank you.
- 15:04Yeah.
- 15:04And I want to remind everybody, if so
- 15:06many people are outraged, we're getting a lot
- 15:08of, take that outrage and visit peta.org
- 15:12forward slash Bainbridge, B-A-I-N-B
- 15:16-R-I-D-G-E.
- 15:17This is the city, the town really, where
- 15:21they want to build this massive monkey breeding
- 15:23facility.
- 15:23You can go there, you can write to
- 15:25city officials, you can get involved.
- 15:27It can't just be PETA doing it on
- 15:30their own.
- 15:30PETA needs to mobilise people.
- 15:32That's why we're doing this today, to get
- 15:34every single person who writes an email.
- 15:36And it's so easy.
- 15:37They have all the emails gathered in one
- 15:41spot.
- 15:41You copy it, you put it in, and
- 15:43you write your email.
- 15:45That will help.
- 15:47And so, yeah.
- 15:51Why?
- 15:52Why didn't the city, these cities, and this
- 15:57is similar to what happened in Hendry County,
- 16:00Florida, which was yet another attempt to build
- 16:03one of these massive monkey breeding facilities, which
- 16:07PETA again stopped.
- 16:09So they stopped it in Puerto Rico, they
- 16:11stopped it in Hendry County, but it always
- 16:13seems like somebody comes in and tells the
- 16:15city, you're going to make a lot of
- 16:17money.
- 16:17And they kind of believe that this is
- 16:20somehow going to bring in bucks, when in
- 16:23fact, I think the opposite could be true.
- 16:28Oh, I think very much so, especially when
- 16:30the bottom falls out of the monkey experimentation
- 16:32market.
- 16:33And it seems to us from the records
- 16:35that we have reviewed, that this was a
- 16:38project that the company brought to the development
- 16:41authority, the development authority in collaboration with the
- 16:45city, put this proposal together.
- 16:48And there was very little notice before the
- 16:50meeting.
- 16:51They didn't realise they were going to need
- 16:54to be voting on it that day.
- 16:55It doesn't excuse anything.
- 16:57These are public officials who need to know
- 16:59what they're about to bring to their city.
- 17:01But it does appear that they swallowed wholeheartedly
- 17:05the lies of Safer Human Medicine, that these
- 17:07were going to be desirable jobs, as though
- 17:09making $16 an hour, taking care of abused
- 17:12monkeys is a desirable job, that there would
- 17:15be no threat to the community.
- 17:16This facility is about a quarter of a
- 17:19mile from the Flint River, and at full
- 17:20capacity will be producing 444,000 gallons of
- 17:24wastewater by their own statistics.
- 17:28And it's less than 300 feet from some
- 17:30people's houses, some people's yards.
- 17:32It was very ill-conceived.
- 17:34So I'm sure the people in that area,
- 17:37and we've seen the photos that I got
- 17:39off of the PETA website of people, there
- 17:43they have tables against this, they're attending meetings
- 17:47against this, they're holding up signs, they're filing
- 17:50lawsuits or a lawsuit.
- 17:52I mean, doesn't that hold sway with the
- 17:55town?
- 17:56It does with some of the officials, and
- 17:58I have to hand it to the citizens
- 18:00of Bainbridge.
- 18:00What a great group of people who have
- 18:03worked so hard to defeat this, and have
- 18:06been at every meeting and have been to
- 18:08see their officials and have been out in
- 18:10the streets and educating the public, and they
- 18:12have a website and they have a Facebook
- 18:14page, which you can find if you go
- 18:15to PETA.org.
- 18:16And they've done just a tremendous job.
- 18:19And it is, I have to say, disappointing
- 18:22that the city has not yet backed off
- 18:25this plan officially.
- 18:26They released a statement saying, we've heard you
- 18:28loud and clear, we don't support it, we
- 18:31will not be taking any further action.
- 18:33However, what we need is for the city
- 18:35to take action and to admit that they
- 18:38violated the Open Meetings Act to some degree
- 18:41at least, and to reject the proposal that
- 18:45they approved.
- 18:46If you can prove, and it seems pretty
- 18:48obvious from what I've looked at, that yes,
- 18:51they did violate the Open Meetings Act.
- 18:54There was something like a 50 plus million
- 18:57dollar benefit to this corporation, what you'd characterise
- 19:02as a sweetheart deal to encourage them to
- 19:07come there?
- 19:08I mean, shouldn't it be the other way?
- 19:10I don't understand.
- 19:12You know, it's a mystery to me why
- 19:14they thought this was going to be desirable
- 19:16business to have in their backyard.
- 19:18Now, I understand communities wanting to bring businesses
- 19:21in, I understand them offering incentives, but the
- 19:24sweetheart deal that this company got is almost
- 19:26beyond belief.
- 19:27Yes, 58 million dollars in tax incentives, they
- 19:31wouldn't be paying full taxes for at least
- 19:33a decade after they moved in, if they're
- 19:35still in business.
- 19:36This is money the city and the county
- 19:38may never recoup if this goes through.
- 19:41There were all kinds of other promises made
- 19:44to them, including, you know, we will smooth
- 19:46the way for the permitting process for you,
- 19:49we will use our lobbyists to help you
- 19:51gain all the incentives that you needed.
- 19:53It's just almost unbelievable.
- 19:56Wow, okay.
- 19:59We've got Emick in Los Angeles, your question
- 20:03or thought for Kathy Guillermo, people for the
- 20:05ethical treatment of animals.
- 20:08Hello, I really love your work, it's always
- 20:13inspiring, thank you.
- 20:16So the ignorance of officials is criminal as
- 20:19usual when it comes to animals, and we
- 20:22know animal tests don't benefit humans, then it's
- 20:26just abused on the hands of humans, and
- 20:29it causes suffering to animals and humans, because
- 20:34humans are waiting for a cure through these
- 20:37experiments that is never going to come.
- 20:40So I'm curious, like, to me, anyone who
- 20:45brings animal testing and abuse must be fired
- 20:48immediately, it's 2024.
- 20:51How can we demand that animal abusers are
- 20:55filtered out of the hiring process, or the
- 20:58election process, even from the government position, so
- 21:02we can prevent wasting lives of poor animals
- 21:05and resources before these crimes reach government level?
- 21:10Excellent question, Kathy.
- 21:13Well, you know, we've got a plan for
- 21:14the phase out of animal experimentation called the
- 21:16research modernisation deal, and we do ask our
- 21:19supporters to get in touch with their members
- 21:21of Congress about it and ask them to
- 21:23support it.
- 21:23It lays out the case for the fact
- 21:26that animal experiments have failed to produce cures
- 21:29and treatments for humans who desperately need it.
- 21:32What we have to overcome is this massive
- 21:34industry of people like Safer Human Medicine, and
- 21:38Charles River, and these companies that import and
- 21:42breed and sell animals, the cage makers, the
- 21:44food makers, and the experimenters themselves who learned
- 21:47one way of doing science, and even though
- 21:50it's not working, can't bring themselves to change
- 21:52that way.
- 21:53I will say, finally, after many years of
- 21:56submitting formal comments of protesting the National Institutes
- 22:02of Health, the biggest funder of animal experimentation,
- 22:05we're starting to see a little bit of
- 22:07movement and support for non-animal methods.
- 22:10There's a long way to go.
- 22:11The best thing you can do is get
- 22:12in touch with their legislators and remind them
- 22:15that they need to take action.
- 22:16We have many members of Congress on our
- 22:18side now, so I think this is doable.
- 22:21And I have to say, just when I
- 22:23was getting ready to do this broadcast, PETA,
- 22:26who never sleeps, came up with a victory,
- 22:30and I decided, let's talk about it here.
- 22:33Dear Jane, in a PETA victory, this was
- 22:35this morning, baby rats will no longer be
- 22:37fed an iron deficient diet to induce anaemia
- 22:40in cruel experiments in which they are fed
- 22:42a test food and their blood is repeatedly
- 22:45taken, conducted by companies wanting to make iron
- 22:48-related health claims for marketing their food or
- 22:50beverage products in Taiwan.
- 22:52Tell us about this victory.
- 22:54Well, yes, this is one of a string
- 22:57of victories in Taiwan.
- 22:58We're working systematically to end the testing involving
- 23:03animals for food ingredients and food products.
- 23:06It's a marketing issue.
- 23:08That's all it is.
- 23:09They want to do these horrible tests on
- 23:10animals where they force feed them things, run
- 23:13them on treadmills so that they can make
- 23:15claims about how healthy food ingredients are.
- 23:18The science is not there to back it.
- 23:21And so we have been working with the
- 23:23Taiwanese government and the officials there to remove
- 23:27their requirements for animal testing for a whole
- 23:30host of claims.
- 23:31And this is the most recent.
- 23:33This will now be a direction of the
- 23:36government agency in Taiwan that these tests are
- 23:39no longer required, no longer necessary in order
- 23:42to make health claims about iron-related products.
- 23:45Wow.
- 23:46Okay.
- 23:46We've got yet another caller, Tiffany in Los
- 23:48Angeles, your question or thought for Kathy Guillermo
- 23:51of PETA.
- 23:53Yes.
- 23:54Thank you so much for spreading the word
- 23:56about this and what we can do to
- 23:58sign the petition and go to the PETA
- 24:01site.
- 24:01Also, do you think that they'll be planning
- 24:03any mass demonstration or a type of rally?
- 24:07I'm sure folks from all over would like
- 24:09to attend.
- 24:11Yeah.
- 24:12I see the photos of the folks there
- 24:17going to meetings, et cetera.
- 24:21If I go back, if I hearken back
- 24:23to our time where we successfully, and I
- 24:26say we, I was a little tiny little
- 24:29blip, PETA did this, stopped the Hendry, well,
- 24:34the Puerto Rico and the Hendry County, particularly
- 24:36the Hendry County plan, Hendry County, Florida, very
- 24:40similar situation.
- 24:42Company comes in, all of a sudden there's
- 24:44like backroom dealing allegedly.
- 24:47And suddenly they've got this plan for this
- 24:50massive monkey breeding facility.
- 24:51PETA did, correct me if I'm wrong, an
- 24:53undercover investigation at the facility that was going
- 24:56to be the basis or the home site
- 25:03for the new facility.
- 25:05And I can tell you what stopped it
- 25:08was PETA and a lot of extremely confrontational
- 25:15protests by local residents.
- 25:18And I'll never forget this moment where there
- 25:21we are outside the Hendry County courthouse.
- 25:24And some of the proponents of this monkey
- 25:26breeding facility said, these are animal rights extremists.
- 25:29And all of a sudden, about 20 old
- 25:31ladies in tennis shoes, one of whom was
- 25:33wearing a little hat with a plastic orange
- 25:35on her head, in their eighties were like,
- 25:39you're going to call us animal rights activists.
- 25:41We're, we're citizens.
- 25:43We don't want to ruin our beautiful state
- 25:46and our beautiful community.
- 25:47Clearly these were local residencies, weren't some animal
- 25:52activists who came in from out of state.
- 25:55It was, as was alleged, I was out
- 25:56of state, but I was there as a
- 25:58reporter, but they had to get really in
- 26:02your face with these Hendry County commissioners till
- 26:05they really felt like, oh, my career's over
- 26:09if I don't, it can't just be polite.
- 26:12Unfortunately, I wish it could.
- 26:15Well, I'll tell you the residents of Bainbridge
- 26:17have been very much in the faces of
- 26:19their officials.
- 26:20They've been to the city, the city meetings
- 26:23and the County commissioners, dozens of them have
- 26:25spoken publicly and, and quite loudly.
- 26:28And because Bainbridge is a small town, they
- 26:31see these people on the streets and they're
- 26:33in their faces on the streets.
- 26:34There has been at least one protest.
- 26:36And I think there will be more at
- 26:38the moment.
- 26:39The, the method that, that what we have
- 26:42needed is for people to speak out to
- 26:44their legislative representatives, to the officials in those
- 26:47meetings.
- 26:48And, and that I think will lead to
- 26:51the kind of protests that you're talking about
- 26:53on a national level at the moment there,
- 26:56there is the most effective thing that people
- 26:58can do is take, take action on our
- 27:00website, send those emails.
- 27:01It is a national issue.
- 27:03Yes.
- 27:04Okay.
- 27:04And there it's, I want to clarify, because
- 27:07if you go to pita.org forward slash
- 27:10Bainbridge, you can write to the local city
- 27:12officials, but you can also write to, let's
- 27:16say your senators, your members of Congress.
- 27:19Can you break it down for us?
- 27:21Yeah.
- 27:21You know, it's, it's important, I think, first
- 27:24of all, to let the city know they
- 27:26are, and I, I believe this is correct.
- 27:29Some of them are very ashamed that they
- 27:31have made international news that they're seeing the
- 27:34city of Bainbridge on a Facebook page in
- 27:36France because of the upcoming abuse of monkeys.
- 27:39And they're, and they're very sensitive to this
- 27:41publicity.
- 27:42They, they are sensitive to criticism from outside.
- 27:45So that's why I think it's important for
- 27:46everybody to get in touch with the city
- 27:48officials and, and the other officials there.
- 27:50It's also important to go to the congressional
- 27:54representatives in this state.
- 27:56There are thousands and thousands of constituents who
- 27:59oppose this.
- 28:00We believe that the, that the congressman there,
- 28:04Sanford Bishop, Representative Bishop, should be making a
- 28:07statement about this.
- 28:09What these legislators can do may be somewhat
- 28:11limited based on the court cases and the
- 28:13procedure in the county, but they can certainly
- 28:16say we stand with the residents of Decatur
- 28:19County and the citizens of Bainbridge.
- 28:21The same for the two senators, Senator Ossoff
- 28:23and Senator Warnock.
- 28:24We have met with locals, with all of
- 28:28the staff members and with some of these
- 28:29legislators via Zoom.
- 28:32The locals have expressed their concern.
- 28:35These legislators know the citizens oppose it.
- 28:37And I think it's shameful that they have
- 28:39not yet made a statement standing with their
- 28:42own constituents in opposition to safer human medicine.
- 28:46I've often said it's sad, but when you're
- 28:48starting, when you're trying to stop any of
- 28:50this stuff, it's really, you got to get
- 28:53to a math, it's like game theory.
- 28:54When it's more painful for them to support
- 28:58it in terms of their career, in terms
- 29:01of their reputation, in terms of money, in
- 29:03terms of just chaos in their lives, that's
- 29:07when it doesn't matter whether it's somebody selling
- 29:10fur, some company selling fur or situations like
- 29:14this, that's when they stop.
- 29:16The pressure has to be on.
- 29:19And this is why I say everybody, I've
- 29:22already done it.
- 29:23As a journalist, I emailed every city official
- 29:26on the PETA.org forward slash Bainbridge site
- 29:32saying we were doing this story, listing some
- 29:35of the allegations, asking for a response.
- 29:38And I can also write as a citizen.
- 29:40I will also write as a citizen, but
- 29:42we need everybody to do that.
- 29:44If you're upset, when you look at the
- 29:46photos of these animals and it breaks my
- 29:49heart, look at their fear, look at their
- 29:52terror.
- 29:53These are our ancestors, our relatives, and we
- 29:56are torturing them for no reason.
- 30:00But that people are stuck in their ways
- 30:02and they are wanting more money for their
- 30:05McMansions, fake science.
- 30:08And that's what I say, fake science, scam
- 30:11artists.
- 30:12Because 90% or more of the experiments
- 30:16that work in animals don't work in humans.
- 30:20And let's go to one more caller and
- 30:22then we're going to come back.
- 30:23Oh, we got two more callers.
- 30:25Okay.
- 30:26Annie and Sherman Oaks, your question or thought.
- 30:31Yes.
- 30:31Thank you so much.
- 30:32Hi, Kathy.
- 30:33Hi, Jane.
- 30:33Thank you so much for having this.
- 30:34This is something that really bleeds my heart.
- 30:38Being in the psychology department, I remember universities
- 30:43having a big role in this too.
- 30:45And they actually want the funding to come
- 30:49big, billions of dollars of our taxes go
- 30:52to experiments.
- 30:53How can we block all governmental, not only
- 30:57in Georgia, they do all these bleeding of
- 31:00animals, torturing them for money and it never
- 31:04works.
- 31:05How can we stop governmental from the root?
- 31:08What can we do?
- 31:09And I'm more than ready to volunteer to
- 31:11do with PETA, whatever is needed.
- 31:14So thank you so much for all that
- 31:16you're doing.
- 31:17Well, let me ask you, Annie, are you
- 31:19going to go to PETA.org forward slash
- 31:21Bainbridge and write those emails?
- 31:25Absolutely.
- 31:26Absolutely.
- 31:27And I will share them and I will
- 31:29do it again and again.
- 31:31Absolutely.
- 31:32Okay.
- 31:32Thank you.
- 31:33All right.
- 31:34Kathy, what do you say?
- 31:36Well, you know, there are several things that
- 31:38can be done.
- 31:39It needs to be stopped on the local
- 31:40level and it needs to be stopped on
- 31:42the national level, locally or in your state.
- 31:45If there are universities in your state that
- 31:48are experimenting on animals, and it's likely that
- 31:50there are, be in touch with those universities
- 31:53and say, you don't, you will not support
- 31:55them.
- 31:55You want them to stop it.
- 31:57If you're a member of an alumni or
- 31:59association, or you are an alumni of a
- 32:01university alumni, I think of a university that
- 32:06experiments on animals, let them know you will
- 32:08never be contributing to that university because of
- 32:11the experimentation on animals.
- 32:13It's important.
- 32:13And I want to jump in and say
- 32:15that my alma mater NYU calls me every
- 32:19so often.
- 32:20And I say, until you stop all animal
- 32:23experimentation, I am not giving a penny to
- 32:27NYU, not a single penny.
- 32:29Please pass that along to upstairs.
- 32:33I say it every time.
- 32:35Fantastic.
- 32:36That's exactly what needs to be done.
- 32:38Then on the national level, we have the
- 32:40National Institutes of Health, which doles out about
- 32:43$19 billion to various facilities, mainly universities in
- 32:47the US and overseas.
- 32:49And they have a long way to go.
- 32:52And the only thing that is going to
- 32:54change it is public outcries.
- 32:55Just as you said, Jane, it's got to
- 32:57be pressure and it's got to be constant.
- 32:59It's got to be more painful for them
- 33:01to do this than to stop it.
- 33:03And that's both pressure on NIH.
- 33:06And you can do that through many of
- 33:07the action alerts on our website and also
- 33:09members of Congress.
- 33:10There are two things, if I may say
- 33:12for members of Congress, one is to urge
- 33:14them to support the research modernisation deal or
- 33:17the RMD as we call it.
- 33:19And the second is a very important bill
- 33:21that we're working on.
- 33:22It's called the Cargo Act.
- 33:23It's CEAS Animal Research.
- 33:28Okay, I forget what it stands for offhand.
- 33:32But it's at foreign facilities.
- 33:34And we've given about $2 billion to laboratories
- 33:39in other countries to experiment on animals.
- 33:42And as PETA uncovered in the country of
- 33:45Colombia, there's nobody paying attention to what's going
- 33:49on.
- 33:49The Cargo Act will stop funding animal experiments
- 33:53overseas by NIH, not non-animal research, that
- 33:57may continue.
- 33:58But these foreign labs that are doing things
- 34:00like addicting dogs to opioids and blinding and
- 34:04cutting out the eyes of mice and monkeys
- 34:06and causing strokes in monkeys, that could be
- 34:09stopped.
- 34:09So urge your representatives to support that bill.
- 34:12And it seems so crazy to me, we
- 34:14went through a pandemic, whether you believe it
- 34:17started in the Wuhan wet market or the
- 34:22Wuhan lab, the commonality is animals were being
- 34:25tortured.
- 34:26And you would think you would learn, especially
- 34:29with the controversy over the Wuhan lab, that
- 34:31the United States shouldn't be handing out money
- 34:34to foreign laboratories with zero oversight.
- 34:38They shouldn't be handing out money to do
- 34:40animal experiments, period.
- 34:42And how is it that even despite the
- 34:45pandemic, they haven't gotten this lesson?
- 34:47It's crazy and makes no sense.
- 34:49And I think, you know, with regard to
- 34:51the Georgia facility, the disease issue is very
- 34:54serious.
- 34:55I mean, we know from the CDC's own
- 34:57records that the number of animals coming into
- 35:00this country with diseases transmissible to humans like
- 35:03malaria and tuberculosis has skyrocketed in the last
- 35:07several years.
- 35:08And there are diseases in our country now
- 35:11that haven't been here before or haven't been
- 35:13identified here before, including a new strain of
- 35:16tuberculosis.
- 35:17There's actually a disease, a pathogen that causes
- 35:20a disease called Melioidosis, hard to say, but
- 35:24just remember this, it's considered a tier one
- 35:27select agent that could be used for bioterrorism.
- 35:30It's now in our soils, in our soil
- 35:32in this country, and it has come in
- 35:34with monkeys.
- 35:35So I think we really need to pay
- 35:37attention to this.
- 35:38And for some reason, the very agencies, the
- 35:41CDC and the NIH that are supposed to
- 35:43protect us from these pandemics are enabling the
- 35:47transport of monkeys with diseases and with pathogens
- 35:50to come into this country.
- 35:51It really makes no sense.
- 35:53And they escape.
- 35:55One of the things that people, and I
- 35:59think this could be a real strong talking
- 36:01point for the people of Bainbridge, there's a
- 36:04history of these monkeys escaping.
- 36:06They're smart and they find ways out and
- 36:09then they go into the community and it's
- 36:11happened time and time again.
- 36:13Can you address that Kathy?
- 36:14Yes, it's inevitable.
- 36:16It's not a matter of if it will
- 36:17happen, but when it will happen.
- 36:19Monkeys and chimpanzees and other animals or other
- 36:23primates have escaped from so-called, you know,
- 36:26upscale for lack of a better word facilities,
- 36:30facilities that are considered prestigious.
- 36:33They've escaped in Texas, in Louisiana, in Florida,
- 36:37in North Carolina, and in many other places.
- 36:40And yes, they don't want to be in
- 36:41these cages.
- 36:42If they can figure out a way to
- 36:43get out, they're going to get out and
- 36:45they're going to get out with their diseases.
- 36:47The accident, the road accident in Pennsylvania that
- 36:50one of the callers referred to earlier was
- 36:53a shipload of monkeys coming in on a
- 36:55plane to New York and being trucked across
- 36:58country to some unknown facility.
- 37:01And there was a car accident and a
- 37:03truck accident in Pennsylvania.
- 37:05The crates that you see the pictures of
- 37:07here spilled out onto the road.
- 37:10And the people who stopped to help didn't
- 37:12know what animals were in them.
- 37:14The woman who got some monkey saliva in
- 37:18her eye was told that there were cats
- 37:20in these crates.
- 37:22So she went up to try to help
- 37:23and ended up in an emergency room and
- 37:25undergoing a course of therapy to make sure
- 37:27she didn't contract herpes B, a nearly universal
- 37:31fatal illness that monkeys carry without a problem.
- 37:35But when it gets into a human system,
- 37:37you die.
- 37:3823 lab workers have died of herpes B.
- 37:40So these are very serious issues.
- 37:42All right, we've got Susan in Dallas, Texas,
- 37:45your question or thought for Kathy Guillermo.
- 37:48Hi.
- 37:50First, I really wanted to thank you, Eugene,
- 37:53for doing this show and also Peter for
- 37:55all your incredible work.
- 37:57My question is, have we thought about or
- 38:00is there any way to question the company
- 38:03itself?
- 38:04Because it seems to me safer human medicine
- 38:07is a lie, as we all know.
- 38:10So can we approach that?
- 38:13You know, it's a good question.
- 38:16And we certainly would like to.
- 38:18This company is shrouded in some mystery.
- 38:21It was just incorporated about a year ago.
- 38:24There are only three names associated with it,
- 38:27men who came from other companies with troubled
- 38:30pasts.
- 38:31We only know of one funder.
- 38:33It's an investment firm that funds the development
- 38:38of pharmaceuticals, from what we can tell.
- 38:41They are not interested in going and not
- 38:43carrying this through, however.
- 38:45I mean, these are people who aren't going
- 38:47to live in the state of Georgia.
- 38:48They would like to plop this facility down
- 38:50and then go back to their, you know,
- 38:53their homes and communities that are much safer.
- 38:55And I don't think there's any talking to
- 38:57them about it.
- 38:58They want to steamroller this through despite the
- 39:01objections of the citizens.
- 39:02And they've said as much, you know, we
- 39:04really don't care that you don't want this
- 39:06in your community.
- 39:07We want to make this happen.
- 39:09Wow.
- 39:10I just want to go back and just,
- 39:13first of all, applaud PETA for being relentless
- 39:17and never, never stopping because of the situation
- 39:22in Puerto Rico that I remember happening where
- 39:25they tried to build a similar facility.
- 39:28Oh my gosh.
- 39:29I think that was way back in something
- 39:31like 2009.
- 39:33That sounds about right.
- 39:35Yeah.
- 39:35And so you stopped it there.
- 39:38And again, you had to take it all
- 39:39the way up to the Puerto Rican Supreme
- 39:40Court to stop it.
- 39:42And this is what they did there is
- 39:44they built the entire facility first, and then
- 39:47they asked for permission, probably, you know, handing
- 39:51out God only knows what.
- 39:53But because they didn't get the proper permits,
- 39:57it went all the way up to the
- 39:58Puerto Rican Supreme Court.
- 39:59They weren't allowed to open that facility.
- 40:01Then we had a situation in Hendry County
- 40:04where there was a plan to bring in
- 40:10a new facility.
- 40:12There was some guy who came from out
- 40:14of town who was kind of like promoting
- 40:17it.
- 40:19And it was such a saga.
- 40:24I remember that there was a moment where
- 40:28all the different counties were going to show
- 40:31off their business plans and everything they were
- 40:35going to do for new business.
- 40:37And we were there at this event in
- 40:40Fort Myers, sitting at all these tables.
- 40:43And there was this one activist who said,
- 40:45I really don't want to be here.
- 40:47And I said, well, you don't have to
- 40:48be here if you don't want to.
- 40:49We bought tickets.
- 40:50We're here.
- 40:51Let's just see what happens.
- 40:53And we were just sitting there as Hendry
- 40:55County did their entire presentation, never mentioning the
- 40:58proposed monkey facility.
- 41:00And this same woman who was so reluctant
- 41:03to be there suddenly jumped up.
- 41:06This happened, ran to the front of the
- 41:07stage, jumped on the stage and said, you
- 41:11are lying.
- 41:12You are omitting the huge monkey breeding facility
- 41:15you want to put here.
- 41:16All hell broke loose.
- 41:18And that was the end of it.
- 41:20And then when we drove up to investigate
- 41:22further, a few days later or a week
- 41:25later, sometime later, the guy who had come
- 41:28from out of town to push this whole
- 41:30thing had left.
- 41:32And literally, it was like he cleared out
- 41:34and fled.
- 41:35The door to his home was open.
- 41:38And we just walked in and we looked.
- 41:40It was like he skipped town.
- 41:44That has never lost me, never left me,
- 41:47that whole saga, where one protester who at
- 41:53first didn't want to be there, but then
- 41:54when she heard the dissembling and saw that
- 41:58they were going to hide this big plan,
- 42:01just lost it and jumped up there.
- 42:03She wasn't violent, but she disrupted the whole
- 42:05thing and said, you're leaving out your big
- 42:07plan.
- 42:08And it made the news.
- 42:10It was chaos.
- 42:12And that's what did it in.
- 42:14I personally believe, obviously, along with the great
- 42:16work of PETA, it just shows you one
- 42:18potent activist really putting her foot down and
- 42:23being disruptive in a peaceful, nonviolent way, that
- 42:26can also help.
- 42:28It's everything, Jane.
- 42:30It's everything.
- 42:31And as far as sticking to a campaign,
- 42:33well, that comes directly from my boss, Ingrid
- 42:34Newkirk, who always says animals don't need five
- 42:37-minute friends.
- 42:38We've got to start something and we've got
- 42:40to see it through.
- 42:41And I have to also let your audience
- 42:43know that Charles River is trying to put
- 42:45a similar facility in Texas.
- 42:48And we've worked with the locals there.
- 42:50We're perhaps in a slightly better place there
- 42:53now than we are in Georgia, because Charles
- 42:56River has said, look, we didn't know there
- 42:57would be such opposition.
- 42:59We're putting this plan on hold for the
- 43:00moment.
- 43:01The fight's not over, but the point is
- 43:04this can happen anywhere.
- 43:06This can happen in your community.
- 43:07If you think it's just Georgia or you
- 43:09think it's just Brazoria County, Texas, it's not.
- 43:12It can be anywhere where there's a piece
- 43:14of land where somebody thinks they can make
- 43:15money by buying and selling monkeys like they're
- 43:18slaves.
- 43:20Wow.
- 43:20Well, we have a lot of people who
- 43:22called in from Texas today.
- 43:24So what can they do?
- 43:27Is Brazoria County where they were trying to
- 43:30plan this?
- 43:30That's right.
- 43:31It's down by the Gulf Coast.
- 43:33They want to put in a facility that's
- 43:36on a wetlands area, which of course is
- 43:38extremely dangerous for a whole lot of reasons.
- 43:41And in both Texas and Georgia, the storm
- 43:44issues are significant.
- 43:45There are hurricane areas, there are flood areas.
- 43:48And if you know, I spoke with an
- 43:50organisation that does a lot of work with
- 43:52small animal shelters in Georgia.
- 43:53And she said, when there's a storm and
- 43:55there's a flood, it is a disaster when
- 43:57you have 50 dogs in a facility.
- 44:00Imagine you have a flood and there's 30
- 44:01,000 monkeys in them.
- 44:03But as far as to answer your question,
- 44:06what people can do is just go to
- 44:07PETA.org and you'll see information about the
- 44:10Texas facility or simply Google PETA Brazoria County.
- 44:15That's B-R-A-Z-O-R-I
- 44:16-A.
- 44:17And unlike in Georgia, we've had the good
- 44:20ear of many legislators who are listening to
- 44:23their constituents and the city and the county
- 44:26officials in that community have listened to their
- 44:29constituents.
- 44:30And that's what we need to happen in
- 44:32Georgia as well.
- 44:33Wow.
- 44:34Well, I hope that some residents of Bainbridge
- 44:37are watching or we can send them this
- 44:39video because I could tell them, step it
- 44:42up, step it up.
- 44:44I mean, daily protests.
- 44:47Daily protests and three cheers for those folks
- 44:50who are working so hard to stop this.
- 44:52It is everything.
- 44:54I can't emphasise enough, Jane, as you've said
- 44:56that sometimes it's one activist, sometimes it's 10
- 44:59,000, but the more the better and the
- 45:02more constant, the better.
- 45:04And being oh so very polite is not
- 45:11going to work.
- 45:12It's not going to work.
- 45:14We have to raise our voices for the
- 45:17animals because the bad guys don't really hear
- 45:22until we speak forcefully.
- 45:25Polite letters, I wish I was wrong.
- 45:28I wish polite letters would work, but throughout
- 45:33all of these campaigns, it always starts with
- 45:35a polite letter, doesn't it?
- 45:38In virtually every case.
- 45:39And you're right, silence is death for animals.
- 45:42They don't have the time to wait for
- 45:43us to be quiet and to be polite.
- 45:46We need to be loud and we need
- 45:47to know we're right and we need to
- 45:49keep it up.
- 45:50So let's talk, you said that there were
- 45:52promising aspects to what's happening with animal experimentation.
- 45:57The research modernisation deal, where does that stand?
- 46:03Because what is it in a nutshell and
- 46:05where does it stand?
- 46:06The research modernisation deal was developed by scientists
- 46:10at PETA in response to requests from the
- 46:12Dutch government who was looking for a plan
- 46:15to phase out the use of animals.
- 46:16And so on very short notice, we put
- 46:19together all the information that we already had,
- 46:21but had never quite been put together in
- 46:23a strategy before.
- 46:26And what it does is lay out the
- 46:28evidence that shows the failure of animal experiments.
- 46:31For example, the 95 to a hundred percent
- 46:34failure of all treatments for many serious disease
- 46:37areas that have not worked in humans, even
- 46:40though they appear to be promising in animals.
- 46:43And then it's a strategy, a five-point
- 46:44strategy that says, here's what officials need to
- 46:48do.
- 46:49First of all, when we know an area
- 46:51of animal experimentation is not working, say sepsis
- 46:55experiments on animals, sepsis of course being what
- 46:59happens to so many people in hospitals when
- 47:01their body reacts to infection and can shut
- 47:04down, kills more than a hundred thousand people
- 47:06a year.
- 47:07150 drugs developed in mice, none of them
- 47:10worked in humans.
- 47:11So when we know an area of research
- 47:13on animals is not working, stop it immediately.
- 47:16We know it doesn't work, quit putting good
- 47:19money after bad.
- 47:20The second is to find out scientifically every
- 47:24other area that we're not sure about.
- 47:26Conduct those systematic reviews, put together the evidence,
- 47:29which we know is there, that it's not
- 47:31working, and then stop those areas.
- 47:33And then there are a number of other
- 47:35steps involving implementation of non-animal methods.
- 47:38We have to change the committees that review
- 47:41the proposals for funding at NIH, because these
- 47:45committees are largely composed of animal experimenters, and
- 47:48we need people with expertise in non-animal
- 47:50methods.
- 47:51We need the government to get behind education
- 47:54on non-animal methods.
- 47:55The methods are there.
- 47:56This isn't a matter of we have to
- 47:58develop a whole lot of new things.
- 47:59It's there.
- 48:00But we need to encourage young researchers to
- 48:04follow this information, to learn about non-animal
- 48:07methods, and we need to take the pressure
- 48:09off graduate students in the sciences to do
- 48:13animal experiments, which is something we exposed in
- 48:16a short documentary called Test Subjects, about three
- 48:19of our scientists who were compelled to do
- 48:21animal experiments in order to get their doctoral
- 48:23degrees.
- 48:24And it was so devastating for them.
- 48:27It changed the whole course of their careers.
- 48:29Oh, I can't even imagine.
- 48:31I mean, this is also across the board.
- 48:33I've talked to people who are in vet
- 48:35school who don't want to do animal experimentation
- 48:38or cruel whatever, and they're like, well, I
- 48:42need to become, I've invested so much to
- 48:45become a veterinarian.
- 48:46But there are people who have made history
- 48:49by refusing to do vivisection, and filing a
- 48:52lawsuit, and finding out that a lot of
- 48:55their fellow students feel the same way, but
- 48:57were unwilling to reveal it for fear of
- 49:01repercussion.
- 49:02And then when one person, again, when one
- 49:04person stands up and does it, a lot
- 49:06of other people say, I feel the same
- 49:08way.
- 49:08I didn't want to say anything, but I
- 49:09don't want to do this either.
- 49:11So that's why it's so important for one
- 49:13person to take a committed stand and stick
- 49:17their neck out.
- 49:17Is that not true?
- 49:18Oh, it's completely true.
- 49:20I mean, we do a lot of lawsuits,
- 49:23because this is why, because we've got to
- 49:26fight these things.
- 49:27And sometimes it's one person and one lawsuit
- 49:29that does it.
- 49:30And just to answer the second part of
- 49:32your question, Jane, where it stands now is
- 49:34that members of Congress know what the research
- 49:37modernisation deal is.
- 49:38We now need those members of Congress to
- 49:40compel NIH to take the steps we outlined.
- 49:43We're gaining traction in Europe.
- 49:45We know in England and certainly in the
- 49:47European parliament, we have support.
- 49:49And the members of the European parliament have
- 49:51even voted to compel the commission to come
- 49:55up with a plan to phase out experimentation.
- 49:56And they did this after they read the
- 49:58research modernisation deal.
- 50:00So there is progress, but it can be
- 50:03slow unless we really keep at it.
- 50:06So again, pardon me if I'm a little
- 50:09confused about this, because I thought maybe this
- 50:11passed, but has it been signed into law?
- 50:15In Europe, do you mean?
- 50:17No, the research modernisation deal.
- 50:20Not yet.
- 50:21At the moment, we are still at the
- 50:23point where we need members of Congress to
- 50:26not only be familiar with what it is,
- 50:29but to take action with the National Institutes
- 50:31of Health.
- 50:32I think the Cargo Act that I mentioned
- 50:34earlier is really their first step in that
- 50:37direction and the FDA Modernisation Act as well,
- 50:40frankly.
- 50:41But the Cargo Act, which says, okay, this
- 50:43is a bridge too far when we're sending
- 50:45this money overseas.
- 50:46It needs to end everywhere.
- 50:48Let's start with where we don't have any
- 50:50oversight of it.
- 50:51It has not passed yet.
- 50:52It needs to.
- 50:53What we've seen is that the National Institutes
- 50:55of Health under the new director, Director Burton
- 50:58Yole, have made a commitment to supporting non
- 51:03-animal methods and implementing non-animal methods.
- 51:05And they did this under pressure from people
- 51:08within NIH and from our scientists who have
- 51:11consistently and repeatedly pointed the way forward for
- 51:15them.
- 51:15And we were really happy to see in
- 51:17the new announcement that they made about two
- 51:18weeks ago about this, that many of the
- 51:20steps that we had recommended were included.
- 51:23So it's positive, but it's all in the
- 51:26doing.
- 51:27You can say a lot of things, but
- 51:28if it's not done, it doesn't make any
- 51:31difference.
- 51:31And that's why we still need people to
- 51:33be in touch with members of Congress about
- 51:34it.
- 51:35And we only have a couple of minutes
- 51:37left.
- 51:37I just want to cover some of the
- 51:38hideous, idiotic experiments.
- 51:41I was actually calling and I didn't get
- 51:44a pickup on an experiment.
- 51:48Names aside, because journalistically, I would have to
- 51:52reach out to them, but I did try
- 51:55to reach out.
- 51:55But after business hours, they're subjecting monkeys to
- 51:59severe noises every 15 minutes to test what?
- 52:03What nonsense?
- 52:05You know, this is a, just a crazy
- 52:07experiment.
- 52:08And what we don't go into in the
- 52:11emails that we send out, because it's just
- 52:12too complicated, is that this experiment originated at
- 52:15the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where we're trying
- 52:18to stop the use of marmosets in ridiculous
- 52:21menopause experiments.
- 52:22The same experimenter who is doing those came
- 52:26up with this plan to wake up tiny,
- 52:30gentle marmoset monkeys every 15 minutes, all night
- 52:34long.
- 52:34And somehow this is supposed to tell us
- 52:37something about humans with Alzheimer's or dementia who
- 52:41have trouble sleeping.
- 52:43I mean, it's insane on the face of
- 52:44it.
- 52:44And our own university wouldn't even let her
- 52:46do it.
- 52:47She's got funding from NIH.
- 52:49She went to University of Wisconsin and they
- 52:51agreed to do it.
- 52:52And it hasn't started yet to our knowledge.
- 52:54That's why we're working so hard right now.
- 52:56We've had the call-ins and the emails,
- 52:58and if I have to, I'm going to
- 52:59stand outside this experimenter's door banging a pan
- 53:02every 15 minutes so she has a sense
- 53:05of what it is.
- 53:06But it's a ridiculous thing.
- 53:08There are brain scans with human beings who
- 53:10have trouble sleeping right now that are being
- 53:13done.
- 53:13It's ridiculous that somebody is suggesting this has
- 53:16anything to do with helping human beings.
- 53:18Well, it's all follow the money.
- 53:21It's easy to get research grants when you
- 53:26say, okay, I'm going to take this many
- 53:28monkeys and do this terrible thing to them.
- 53:30But that's not moving science ahead.
- 53:33That is just barbaric.
- 53:35It belongs in a mediaeval torture museum.
- 53:38We are in the 21st century, and it
- 53:41makes my blood boil that a single tax
- 53:44dollar that I contribute would go to any
- 53:46of this.
- 53:47And I just am so grateful to PETA
- 53:50for never, never giving up.
- 53:53Relentless, strategic, all hands on deck, PETA makes
- 53:59it happen.
- 54:00And that's why I, anytime, no matter what
- 54:04I'm doing, when I get an email from
- 54:06PETA, I stop everything and I take action
- 54:09on that email.
- 54:10Why?
- 54:10Because I know it's going to be fast.
- 54:12It's going to be an action point that
- 54:14is strategic and smart, and it's going to
- 54:16have an impact.
- 54:17I urge everybody sign up for the PETA
- 54:19alerts.
- 54:20Go to this website to help these monkeys,
- 54:2530,000 monkeys that could be put into
- 54:28prison in this little community.
- 54:32And it's very, very easy.
- 54:34Go to PETA.org forward slash Bainbridge, PETA
- 54:38.org forward slash Bainbridge, follow the prompts, let
- 54:42them know that this is shameful and that
- 54:46nobody wants it.
- 54:48And I really, really want to say once
- 54:52again, PETA, wow, I have been following you
- 54:55for my entire career and always, always, always
- 55:03on the mark making positive change.
- 55:06Thank you, Kathy Guillermo.
- 55:08Thank you, Jane.
- 55:09And thank you for your activism.
- 55:11I mean, you've made a world of difference
- 55:12to animals and we're so grateful and such
- 55:14big fans of yours.