DANVILLE – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reportedly has opened an investigation into the treatment of the monkeys involved in Friday’s accident near Danville.
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said Monday it has been notified its request for an investigation has been accepted. Attempts to get confirmation from USDA were unsuccessful.
Alka Chandna, vice president laboratory investigations cases for PETA, in a letter to USDA and copied to Gov. Tom Wolf wrote: “We believe the handling and treatment of monkeys before, during and after the collision may constitute violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act and animal welfare regulations.”
She urged USDA “to take swift action” to ensure that any parties responsible for the pain and distress suffered by the 100 monkeys are held accountable to the maximum extent permitted by law.
Potential violations Chandna cited include:
- Not evaluating or providing veterinary care following the accident while the monkeys were exposed to the cold.
- Failing to keep the primates in enclosures strong enough to securely and comfortably hold them and to withstand the normal rigors of transportation.
- Exposing all the monkeys to the cold despite the requirement temperatures in animal holding facilities must not fall below 45 degrees.
In a statement, issued in conjunction with Chandna’s letter, PETA states: “Feces and urine from the terrified monkeys were reportedly smeared across the highway as crates — that weren’t strapped in as required — flew from the truck ”
All the monkeys, some of whom might have been injured, were terrified and exposed to subfreezing temperatures without any protection or veterinary care, PETA contends.
The 100 cynomolgus macaques had been picked up at JFK Airport in New York City after arriving Friday morning from Mauritius, an island off the African coast.
They were headed for a Centers for Disease Control-approved quarantine facility when the accident occurred shortly after 3 p.m., spokesperson Kristen Nordlund said. She would not identify the facility.
Game Commission Officers pull up as Pennsylvania State Troopers prepare to look for several monkeys which escaped from their crates after the trailer which they were being transported in was involved in a crash on state Route 54 and Interstate 80 near Danville, Pa., Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. They were transporting 100 monkeys and several were on the loose at the time of the photo. (Jimmy May/Bloomsburg Press Enterprise via AP)AP
Three of the primates escaped when the pickup truck pulling a trailer in which they were being transported in crates collided with a dump truck on Route 54 at the Interstate 80 interchange.
A panel on the trailer broke loose and crates containing the monkeys were strewn about. One broke open.
The three monkeys were recaptured by Saturday night and, following a public health assessment, were euthanized in accordance with the American Veterinary Medical Association guidelines.
The assessment included making sure appropriate personal protective equipment was worn by those transferring the monkeys to a new vehicle, said state Health Department communications director Barry Ciccocioppo.
The decision to euthanize was made to protect the safety of the public and first responders because cynomolgus macaques can transmit a number of deadly viruses to humans, Nordlund said.
Chandna’s letter raises the possibility the three monkeys were shot by state police. Attempts to reach state police Monday night were unsuccessful.
Shooting is considered a humane method of killing only when the gunshot is properly placed to cause immediate insensibility and a humane death, Chandna points out.
Anyone who had contact with one of the primates was advised to contact their health provider, Ciccocioppo said.
One of those who did that was Michele Fallon, of Mooresburg, who was following the pickup driven by Cody M. Brooks, 31, of Keystone Heights, Florida, off the westbound exit ramp from Interstate 80. He went straight across Route 54 heading for the westbound I-80 entrance ramp when the collision with the dump truck driven by Tyler G. Deeghan, 29, of Canton, occurred, she said.
State police issued a written warning to Brooks for a Vehicle Code violation related to turning movements and signals but no charges are planned, Trooper Andrea E. Pelachick said.
Fallon pulled over and said she did not immediately see the crates because she went to check on the people in the vehicles in a culvert.
When she saw crates in the road she thought they likely came from the dump truck, she said.
Upon hearing someone say there were cats in the crates, Fallon said she approached one of them because “I’m an animal lover.”
She called “kitty, kitty” and struck her finger in a hole in a crate. A “monkey’s head popped out” and “hissed at me,” she said. She believes she touched a little fur.
Crates holding live monkeys are collected next to the trailer they were being transported in along state Route 54 at the intersection with Interstate 80 near Danville, Pa., Friday, Jan. 21, 2022, after a pickup pulling the trailer carrying the monkeys was hit by a dump truck. They were transporting 100 monkeys and several were on the loose at the time of the photo. (Jimmy May/Bloomsburg Press Enterprise via AP)
She helped turn crates right-side up before she said she was advised not to get near the primates because they had not been quarantined.
Fallon said she thought they were being transported from one zoo to another. “I didn’t know they were lab monkeys until a trooper told me,” she said. Otherwise, “I would not have touched them.”
At the suggestion of the state Health Department she went to her doctor. She has received the rabies vaccine and started to take anti-viral medication, she said. She said Monday that one of her eyes was irritated and watering, saying it was like pink eye. She also said she was coughing and had a runny nose, but said she has been around people who are sick.
The monkeys are native to Southeast Asia but were taken to Mauritius three centuries ago by sailors, according to Lisa Jones-Engel, scientific adviser of primate experiments for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
An issue PETA has with research monkeys coming into this country is a lack of oversight and that many of them are infected, she said. Even after 30 days in quarantine, primates have been found with tuberculosis, cholera, salmonella and other diseases, she claims.
Research for which the monkeys are used includes the amount of medication that might be fatal in a human, Jones-Engel said. They were used in research to develop a vaccine for HIV and malaria that failed in humans, she said.
A report by the Humane Society of the United States states that “approximately 70,000 nonhuman primates are used for research in the United States each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and another 45,000 are held or bred for research.”
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