Here’s a roundup of the week’s biggest news stories related to animal research — all the recent media coverage you need to know right now to be the most effective activist for animals in labs.
The Cold War Is Over — But Not for Monkeys.
Rise for Animals, 7/15/2025
Monkeys are still being bred, caged, and used in experiments — not because it’s the best science, but because of Cold War-era thinking that never went away.
The U.S. built its primate research empire on fear. And now, some six decades later, that empire is thriving off taxpayer dollars and animal suffering. 📰 Full Story →
The Sanctuary Movement for Monkeys
Amy M. Kerwin, The Progressive Magazine, 7/10/2025
“In 2000, Congress passed the Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance, and Protection Act (C.H.I.M.P. Act) to provide funding for lifetime care and sanctuary for chimpanzees who had been kept and used in U.S. laboratories. Today, chimpanzee sanctuaries across the United States care for more than 700 of these majestic great apes . . . But a similar plan has yet to be devised for the monkeys in U.S. laboratories, and that needs to change. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there were more than 105,000 non-human primates (mostly monkeys) living in laboratories or holding facilities nationwide….”
“I am a former primate researcher who in 2004 formed the nonprofit organization Primates, Inc., to create a Wisconsin-based primate sanctuary . . . It is only fair that a small percentage of the funding available for conducting experiments on monkeys be set aside to allow researchers to send monkeys to sanctuary. Yet most of the companies and institutions involved in research have resisted the idea that they have a lasting responsibility to the monkeys they buy, breed, and use.” 📰 Full Story →
End of an era? Scientists call for ethical non-animal nutrition research
Venya Patel, Nutrition Insight, 7/14/2025
“‘If alternative methods to animals are not required to be used in science, then ethical standards must be inadequate,’ Jarrod Bailey, PhD, director of Medical Research, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, tells Nutrition Insight. ‘Effectively, this means that researchers are free to choose to inflict pain, suffering, and often death on animals by choice. Most people would find that unethical and unacceptable, no matter where their general views on research using animals sit on the spectrum.”
“For human nutrition research, he suggests that the alternative is to study people. ‘One salient example of the consequences of this is a recent study in Colorado on the impact of eating pulses on gut microbiota.’ “This research received IACUC approval to use and kill almost 18,000 rats and mice — all to establish something we already know from many previous human studies: that eating beans is good for you. All experimental aims were achievable using human-based methods,’ flags Bailey.
“‘We simply have to study humans — human beings, human tissues, human cell cultures, human data. There is a wealth of comprehensive evidence out there showing that applying data from one species to another is almost always impossible due to the myriad biological differences between species that cannot be overcome or accounted for.’” 📰 Full Story →
Brazil bans sale of imported cosmetics tested on animals
Beatrice Wihlander, Personal Care Insights, 7/14/2025
“Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies has approved a landmark law banning the sale of imported cosmetics tested on animals. The law, which is awaiting presidential sanction, applies to all personal care products tested on vertebrate non-human animals.”
“The implementation follows Brazil’s ban on domestic animal testing for cosmetics, which took effect in March 2023. However, the former ban only applies to testing in Brazil, not cosmetics sold from other countries.” 📰 Full Story →
Cambridgeshire Police – A New Attack on Right to Protest Over Animal Cruelty
Sul Nowroz, Real Media, 7/14/2025
“Four guardians from Camp Beagle, Europe’s longest running animal protest camp, have been issued Community Protection Notices (CPNs) by Cambridgeshire police in the latest effort to silence campaigners picketing vivisection puppy breeder, MBR Acres . . . The two-page notices allege unreasonable behaviour by the recipients, including the distraction of drivers entering the site and the use of audio equipment to amplify voices (i.e. use of a megaphone) despite these tactics being universally recognised as legitimate for protesters.”
“The notices issued to the four individuals at Camp Beagle appears to be the first time a CPN is being used to suppress a political protest, and sets an alarming precedent. CPNs are normally used to protect communities from disorderly and socially damaging behaviour – but in the case of Camp Beagle, the notice is effectively being issued on behalf of a commercial enterprise. MBR Acres breeds dogs for use in so-called laboratory testing.” 📰 Full Story →
USDA issues official warning to Alpha Genesis over Nov. 2024 death of 22 monkeys
Perrin Moore, ABC News 4, 7/15/2025
“The US Department of Agriculture issued an official warning to the Alpha Genesis Primate Research Center in Yemassee earlier this month after a December 2024 inspection report alleged the biomedical research company ‘failed to safely provide heat to nonhuman primates,’ resulting in the deaths of 22 monkeys. The company made headlines last year when over 40 rhesus macaque monkeys escaped its Beaufort County facility.”
“An official warning from the APHIS does not constitute a final agency decision or adjudicated finding of a violation, but does establish that if the agency obtains evidence of any future violations of federal regulations it could pursue sanctions including criminal prosecution.” 📰 Full Story →
NIH under fire for funding dog tests despite vow to cut animal research
Claire Colley, The Guardian, 7/16/2025
“The US National Institute of Health (NIH) is continuing to fund ‘cruel and wasteful’ animal experiments involving dogs and cats, despite their recent announcement to reduce animal research . . . information obtained by the animal rights NGO White Coat Waste (WCW) shows that the NIH has in fact funded millions of dollars’ worth of new animal experiments.”
“Analysis of project documents and those obtained through Freedom of Information Act (Foia) requests reveal that the NIH has approved nine new grants for dog research since [the NIH’s] April announcement, costing the taxpayer over $12m, as well as extending about nine already active, with total study costs of $42m. WCW says these are in addition to the approximately 193 ongoing NIH-funded dog and cat studies, costing about $1.3bn.”
“New experiments uncovered by WCW include toxicology testing of an investigational drug to treat methamphetamine addiction . . . Extended research includes a cocaine experiment to study cardiovascular effects. This involves beagles being strapped into jackets that inject them with cocaine as well as being force-fed an experimental drug to see how the two drugs interact. Another vaccine experiment involves infecting beagle puppies with viruses by strapping containers full of “mutant” ticks to their bare skin, sometimes with pain relief intentionally withheld.” 📰 Full Story →
CORRECTION — Hundreds of Endangered Monkeys Arrive in Canada for Research Despite Public Health Risk
Animal Protection Party of Canada, Global Newswire [via Yahoo! Finance], 7/16/2025
“The Animal Protection Party of Canada is sounding the alarm after a SkyTaxi flight carrying hundreds of endangered long-tailed macaques from Cambodia arrived in Canada early yesterday morning. These monkeys are destined for use in Canadian laboratories — a practice shrouded in secrecy and fraught with ethical and public health concerns.”
“The journey was long and grueling. The flight left Cambodia the morning of Monday, July 14 then landed over nine hours later in Katowice, Poland, where it stopped for more than six hours. It departed Katowice late into the night, eventually arriving in Montreal the morning of July 15, over eight hours later — leaving the monkeys confined to tiny wooden transport crates for well over 24 hours.”
“In 2022, U.S. authorities indicted Cambodian officials in connection with this smuggling scheme and stopped accepting imports from the country. Canada, however, increased its imports from the country, despite a call by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Secretariat earlier this year that all member countries (including Canada) suspend trade in long-tailed macaques from Cambodia.” 📰 Full Story →
New Phase in Court Fight Over Deadly Animal Experiments at Macalester College Exposes Shocking Admissions About College’s Standards, Ethics, and Donors
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, 7/17/2025
“Court papers filed by Macalester College alumnus Neal Barnard, MD, on July 16, 2025, reveal that the college’s commitment to protection of animals in research was never sincerely held. Dr. Barnard filed his opposition to Macalester’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit he brought against the college over fatal animal experiments that violate the college’s own research ethics policy.”
“ . . . the college has asserted in its motion to dismiss that its own ethics statements are mere ‘generic phrases.’ The college wrote, ‘These statements are, at most, ‘vague or highly subjective’ statements of superiority—not representations of material fact,’ drawing comparisons with generic phrases used to sell ‘dog food’ and ‘Whole Grain Oats.’ It goes on to tell the court that ethical guidelines are ‘subject to interpretation’ and that donors cannot rely on the text as any sort of commitment.”
“Macalester’s website says that its ‘animal welfare standards and ethical principles are applied at the highest possible level in any animal use or research conducted at or in association with the college’ and that it follows the federal Animal Welfare Act….” 📰 Full Story →
Reclaiming “Guinea Pigs”: Beyond Icons of Animal Research
Rise for Animals, 7/16/2025
Calling someone a “guinea pig” reinforces a long, violent history of exploitation of these gentle beings. In honor of Guinea Pig Appreciation Day, help reclaim these animals’ freedom. 📰 Full Story →
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