To carry out even more tests on monkeys, the State is providing 30 million euros to build a National Primatology Center in France.
On June 27, the CNRS launched a call for tenders to expand its site and build a national primatology center in Rousset, Bouches-du-Rhône. The project, estimated to cost over 30 million euros, will be paid for by our taxes. Faced with funding that is always to the detriment of animals, together with our partners Action for Primates, Abolición Vivisección, Peta and Cheshire Animal Rights, we are calling on the French government and asking the public to join us in doing so.
In its call for tenders, the CNRS wants to increase “primate production” to meet the needs of national academic research. It states that the State has classified macaques as a “strategic resource”: this is how these sensitive, intelligent beings are considered…
The CNRS persists: we revealed a few months ago that the State had already spent 10 million euros on the purchase of 500 female macaques. As if importing hundreds of macaques condemned to undergo all kinds of tests or remain locked up for life wasn’t enough, now a new primate breeding and experimentation center is to be built in France. This project is clear proof that the demand for animals for testing is not diminishing, and that the legal obligation to respect the 3Rs (reduce, replace and limit animal suffering) is not being respected by our institutions. The macaques will be condemned to a life of captivity, boredom, fear and painful experimentation.
Funding at the expense of alternative methods
When it comes to imposing trepanning, injections and various types of sampling on more than 3,500 primates every year, the public authorities are always on hand. However, when it comes to funding alternative, animal-free methods, it’s a completely different story. Since 2021, FC3R funding has not even reached one million euros. And yet, in 2023, three quarters of French people were opposed to animal experimentation…
We therefore urge political representatives to support increased funding for research into these methods. We also call on laboratories to systematically favor available alternative methods, as required by law, and on professionals to train in animal-free testing.
Call to action: we must act now!
We are contacting the CNRS to request information on this project and demand greater transparency. To put an end to these cruel and outdated practices, join us in demanding an end to the use of macaques in laboratories by signing our petition, and you too can write to the authorities!
Download the letter to the Minister of Higher Education and Research.
Download the letter to the CNRS.
On Twitter (copy and paste the following text):
@sretailleau, @CNRS: with @onevoiceanimal, @Action4Primates, @StopCamarles, @peta and #CheshireAnimalRights, I refuse to let my taxes fund a new primate farm for #AnimalExperimentation. #LaboMonkeys