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Update (February 11, 2025): The U.S. Department of Agriculture has cited Alpha Genesis for failing to secure enclosures in which monkeys were imprisoned, leading to the escape last November of 43 individuals into the wooded area surrounding the facility. As a result, these animals were exposed to freezing temperatures without shelter and forced to scavenge for food in an unfamiliar environment. Deprived of adequate nutrition, they likely suffered significant weight loss and, in their struggle to survive, may have engaged in aggressive conflicts.
The agency also cited Alpha Genesis for a critical violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act for the suffocation deaths of 22 monkeys following a complaint filed by PETA. We had received reports from whistleblowers that these endangered, long-tailed macaques died from carbon monoxide poisoning in November after a diesel heater malfunctioned. Reportedly, there were no alarms or alerts as the animals endured agonizing pain. This is no accident—it’s a deadly pattern, bankrolled by $19 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) contracts. Alpha Genesis has repeatedly failed to meet even the bare minimum standards for animal welfare. Federal agencies should be prohibited from throwing taxpayer dollars at a facility with a documented history of negligence, cruelty, and deceit.
Meanwhile, this notorious monkey dealer claims that all 43 escaped monkeys have been recaptured. PETA highly doubts that since the company has too sordid a history of lying and obfuscating to be believed. And witnesses in the community reported to PETA that at least one monkey was hit by a car and killed. We demand proof of life, including the release of the records identifying the monkeys and evidence that the animals correspond to that paperwork.
Since the monkeys who were allegedly recaptured should never be used for any scientific studies—their exposure to wildlife and other unknowns would compromise experimental results—PETA is again asking NIH—which owns them—to release the animals. We have funding from a generous donor and an accredited sanctuary that will welcome them. Please take action below. For once, NIH needs to do right by animals rather than exploit them in meaningless tests irrelevant to humans.
Original post:
Like you, PETA is rooting for 43 monkeys who busted out of their Alpha Genesis prison in South Carolina in early November.
They outsmarted their tormentors. Bested their oppressors. Despite their grim situation, they held onto the tiny spark inside them the experimenters couldn’t touch. And one fine day, they tasted freedom!
You can practically hear the symphony’s flourish just thinking about it.
But this isn’t a movie. And the ugly truth is that a happy ending is far from guaranteed.
The monkeys were brought to Alpha Genesis from Morgan Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, where several thousand free-ranging rhesus macaques have lived for more than four generations. It’s essentially a feeder colony run by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). When it needs new monkeys to torment, they’re plucked from the island.
Alpha Genesis, a stunningly incompetent company with $19 million in current NIH contracts, has allowed 109 monkeys in 12 separate documented incidents to escape in the last decade.
The federal government has cited the company numerous times after employee incompetence killed monkeys, including several who froze to death after being left out in the cold, a monkey who died of thirst after the water was turned off for maintenance and never turned back on, and an infant who became entangled in gauze and died. (Read more about the company’s long list of animal welfare violations here.)
We’ve complained often and loudly to the feds about this hell hole, and in 2017, following a complaint we filed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, that agency took the rare step of fining the company $12,600 for serious animal welfare violations that led to severe injuries and the deaths of two monkeys.
They Can’t Go Back
Born Free USA has contacted Alpha Genesis and offered to work with the company to provide the animals with a suitable home at its Texas-based primate sanctuary. Anonymous donors have committed $250,000 for the long-term care of any of the escaped monkeys once transferred to the sanctuary. Now, NIH needs to do the right thing. Please help TODAY by urging the agency to send all 43 monkeys to live out their lives in peace.
After you take action, you’ll see an easy way to share this information. Please ask five friends or relatives to support this campaign!