As we know all too well, the animal research industry is organized around violence. But that’s not the story the industry wants told.

To keep its violence invisible, the animal research industry relies heavily on its ability to manipulate public narratives – and we’re seeing this in real time.  

Over the weekend, media outlets celebrated the recapture of the last remaining escapees from Alpha Genesis, a nonhuman primate breeding and research facility in South Carolina.

The coverage marks the tragic end of a brief, hard-won taste of freedom for 43 nonhuman primates. These sentient beings – now re-incarcerated – took their last breaths of fresh air, experienced their final moments of nature, and lost their last hopes for any semblance of the lives they deserve. 

Yet, media outlets have cast their recapture as a joyous occasion.

Some media coverage of the monkey’s recapture was so blatant in its bias that it bordered on the absurd.

Take, for example, WCNC Charlotte, which described the “lab monkeys” as being “reunited with researchers”. This language implies relief, closure, and the notion that these animals belong in labs – that their recapture is somehow in their best interests. But, this has no basis in reality. The very phrase “lab monkeys” perpetuates the harmful myth that these animals belong in or are destined for laboratories; in truth, there are no “lab monkeys” — only monkeys forcibly captured (and, in this case, recaptured) by labs. Once there, their interests are thwarted at every turn as they are objectified, commodified, and exploited for human profit. 

The New York Times went even further, calling the recapture the ending “of a story fit for a Disney movie”. Only, unlike a Disney movie where the innocents are freed and the villains defeated, this story “ends” (to use the reporter’s term) with the innocents being returned to the clutches of those from whom they sought escape and who will continue to harm them. 

Live 4 WSCS and WIS10 quoted Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard in describing the recapture as spurring “‘a big monkey party celebration’” and calling it a “‘wonderful sight’”. Do they really expect us to believe that the monkeys are celebrating their return behind bars, stripped of their freedom and at the mercy of those who profit from their suffering? Do they really believe that most of us would consider this a wondrous sight to behold? 

Many reports also framed the monkeys as being “safe” now that they have been recaptured. But the truth is that these monkeys were only safe  when they were beyond Alpha Genesis’ reach. Their recapture means a return to confinement, suffering, and inevitable death, all in service of the animal research industry’s profits. 

This coverage perfectly illustrates how the animal research industry sets the media agenda to frame public discourse in its favor.

Experts describe the animal research industry’s influence on public opinion as “colossal”. By partnering with media to craft and promote self-serving narratives, the industry manufactures social consent for its violence. It cloaks its actions in a veneer of legitimacy and “compassion”, hiding the reality that it exists only for money and power. 

Media narratives often promote ideas that are “convenient for business to continue as usual” and propagate “fake compassion”.

Fake compassion manipulates public perception by pretending the industry operates with “an ethics of care” and with concerns for animals’ needs, experiences, and struggles – while, in reality, the animal research industry ignores and obscures the real needs, experiences, and struggles of those it exploits.

Fake compassion helps the industry continue its violence under the guise of care, masking a system built on suffering and greed – a system in which both money-driven media outlets and animal researchers are complicit.

Ironically, the media – by quoting Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westgaard – got one thing right: Alpha Genesis owes the community thanks.

Said Westergaard of the recapture, “‘[i]t was a real team and community effort’”.

As Westergaard knows, his corporation’s violence-for-profit model relies on community complacency – on the community’s acceptance of the fate of these 43 nonhuman primates (and all the other animals subjugated by the animal research industry). 

So, what if the community had stood firmly and loudly against the monkeys’ recapture, instead?

This story is about more than 43 brave souls who tried to liberate themselves – it’s about community-sanctioned exploitation that keeps the animal research industry alive, and it’s about the power of public opinion to dismantle it.

It’s time to hold the animal research industry, and its media allies, accountable. And, it begins with exposing the truth. 

Together, we can counter the industry’s propaganda, challenge its power, and change its narrative – once and, for the good of, all.

Share this article on Facebook, X, or Bluesky now.