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PETA is urging Washington Governor Bob Ferguson to step in and correct a mistake the state's Board of Health recently made and immediately begin tracking nasty and easily transmissible diseases plaguing caged monkeys, which threaten public health.
Obtained by PETA through public records request
For example, monkeys at the Washington National Primate Research Center suffer from Shigellosis, Campylobacteriosis, and Salmonellosis. These highly contagious diseases can infect humans, causing severe bacterial infections, accompanied by diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and/or stomach pain.
But when PETA, along with numerous other concerned groups, presented a common-sense Petition for Rulemaking to the Board of Health that would have required the same disease tracking already in place for human populations, the panel shot us down cold. They offered no alternatives, either.
It's a baffling double standard: the health department tracks these same pathogens once they reach people, but not while they're ramping up inside a huge primate facility, which, by the way, shares hallways and air systems with a medical center, with staff walking through both.
It makes no sense. A disease does not become less relevant to public health simply because it is first detected in a monkey instead of a human.
The public's health is at risk. Governor Ferguson must address it.
What You Can Do
If you are a Washington state resident, please ask Governor Ferguson to support PETA's appeal urging the state Board of Health to update reporting requirements of notifiable diseases in primates used in experimentation, or come up with an alternative plan to address the lack of reporting of these concerning pathogens.
After you take action, you’ll see an easy way to share this information. Please ask five friends or relatives to support this campaign!