Earlier this month, PCRM filed a complaint with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service against Harvard University’s primate research facility for violating the Endangered Species Act by negligently harming and killing cotton-top tamarins. Harvard has responded by claiming that efforts are being made to relocate the nearly 170 tamarins—critically endangered monkeys native to Colombia—to “other institutions, such as wildlife preserves or sanctuaries.” We may be on the verge of getting these animals out of Harvard’s New England Primate Research Center for good, but your help is needed. Please ask the center’s interim director R. Paul Johnson, M.D., to announce a plan to retire these delicate primates to responsible sanctuaries or wildlife refuges immediately. Harvard has a track record of abusing and killing cotton-top tamarins. In June 2010, a cotton-top tamarin was found dead after his cage was sent through a cage washer. If the tamarin was alive when he entered the washer, he suffered through 15 minutes of scalding, high-pressure water and harsh chemicals before succumbing to third-degree burns all over his body. Another cotton-top tamarin at Harvard’s primate center was found severely dehydrated in February 2012 after being left without water and had to be euthanized. Cotton-top tamarins fare poorly in captivity even without Harvard’s fatal mishaps. Relocating these monkeys is essential to preventing future deaths at Harvard’s New England Primate Research Center. According to published scientific papers, cotton-top tamarins have been used at harvard in numerous studies of very dubious value. A 2006 study reported that tamarins increase the volume of their calls in the presence of background noise. Earlier this year, a comparative study of chimerism (a genetic oddity rarely observed in humans) in marmosets and cotton-top tamarins was reported, using tissue samples obtained “immediately postmortem from animals euthanized following unrelated procedures or in the course of normal end-of-life palliative care.” It is time to place Harvard’s tamarins in sanctuaries or wildlife refuges—by the end of 2012, if possible—and to continue the shift toward human-focused research methods. Please encourage Harvard to release its cotton-top tamarins by contacting Dr. Johnson today. You can read our complaint to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service here. Thank you for your support on this urgent matter. Sincerely,
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