Tell the FDA to End Cruel Primate Experiments

Before being able to market a new drug, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that drug companies conduct all sorts of cruel, outdated experiments on animals. In these "pre-clinical" experiments, animals are poisoned, cut open, and killed, despite the fact that humane alternative methods often exist. Months or years of human studies are required on top of these tests, so you have to wonder, what’s the point?

Every year in the United States, more than 50,000 nonhuman primates are used in experiments. Though it is well known that these animals are very similar to humans in their emotional traits and social organization, they are still subjected to abuse in laboratories, where they are used as "research tools" and treated as inanimate objects. They are used in studies of baldness, erectile dysfunction, drug addiction, and menstruation, and many of these experiments are funded by taxpayer dollars. There is no excuse for this abuse of our closest animal relatives.

The tens of thousands of primates confined to labs in this country suffer in silence behind the closed doors of laboratories, and they need your voice to set them free. The FDA has the power to put an end to the painful, and often pointless, drug tests that primates are subjected to. Please write to the FDA’s top official, Andrew C. von Eschenbach, M.D., and ask him to do his part in replacing primate experiments with humane alternatives.

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