We are raising money so we can help more monkeys retire from laboratories into sanctuaries.
Please visit our GoFundMe campaign at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-retire-more-monkeys-from-labs
Here’s the good news: More labs are retiring monkeys and sending money to help provide for 1-2 years of care! However, many challenges remain. We are asking for your support to help us overcome these challenges.
Challenge#1: The retired monkeys can live to 35-40 years old and need funding for their lifetime care.
Solution #1: Help us raise $12,000 to help pay for two months of operating costs for the amazing six monkey retirees we have, while we continue to host benefits and seek grants to pay for their lifetime care.
Challenge #2: Some labs still choose euthanasia or re-selling the monkeys to more studies. Asking the management of the labs for money to retire a monkey when it is cheaper to euthanize can be futile. When we have asked for money from labs, sometimes we never hear back, and we do not know what happened to the monkey.
Solution #2: There are researchers who want to follow other laboratories’ examples and retire the monkeys for the first time ever from their laboratory! They will likely face funding and bureaucracy challenges as money is earmarked toward researching on the animal–not for their retirement. If we had the $12,000 already saved up to help a potential monkey retiree, we would have a higher chance of sending a monkey to a sanctuary. We would then also ask the researcher to help raise money from their peers to match the $12,000 to show them that it takes a lot of money to help a monkey. This may also cause the lab to realize they eventually should set aside money for retirement since we are improving their employees’ morale by allowing them to send monkeys to sanctuary after they have done so much for humans.
**The picture depicts what primate retirement means: giving them dignity and peace – and going above and beyond minimum guidelines. Minimum Guidelines to house a rhesus monkey are 4.3 ft.² by 2.5 ft high. This is why Amy Kerwin formed Primates Inc in 2003 while at the lab working with 97 amazing rhesus monkeys who never got to see the outdoors. They are super smart with big personalities! This is Batman grooming Mars:)
Let’s help more monkeys groom each other! Thank you for your support!
Pay it Forward
Did you go on to get your PhD, become a veterinarian, or advance your career in some way after gaining experience from the monkeys in a laboratory? Now that more labs are retiring monkeys, you have a chance to pay it forward and help future monkeys retire from labs to the Primates Incorporated sanctuary.
I worked in a lab for five years and made it my life’s work helping them. I hope more who learned from them will help them too. Thank you! – Amy Kerwin, Founder – Primates Incorporated
