Primate Products, Inc. (PPI), owned by Paul W. Barras, is a company whose name speaks volumes. PPI treats nonhuman primates held in its facilities as mere commodities to be bought, sold, and subjected to both physical and psychological abuse. The company imports monkeys from Southeast Asia and Africa, confines them to its run-down compound in Hendry County, Florida, and sells them to laboratories for cruel and deadly experiments.
In 2015, PETA conducted an eyewitness investigation into PPI, and the footage captured was nothing short of horrific. Workers were seen grabbing monkeys by their sensitive tails, prying them off fences, and hurling them into nets, all while disregarding the animals’ wellbeing. Workers pushed protruding internal tissues back into monkeys’ anuses, possibly as a result of stress, and one monkey who had plucked out her hair was housed with others who repeatedly attacked her for over five months. Monkeys with painful injuries, including exposed bones, were left without veterinary care for days.
Following PETA’s investigation, federal authorities cited PPI for over two dozen violations of animal welfare regulations, such as neglect, violent handling, inadequate veterinary care, unsafe and unsanitary conditions, and failure to address the monkeys’ psychological suffering effectively.
The misery of these monkeys does not end with their suffering at PPI, as the company sells them to experimenters at institutions such as Charles River Laboratories, SNBL USA, Columbia University, and the University of Pittsburgh. PPI has received federal contracts worth over $13 million from agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Army, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In July 2016, PPI once again failed to comply with federal animal welfare regulations. A monkey was found dead at the facility “trapped between an internal swinging gate and the post supporting it.” The New Times Broward-Palm Beach reported that it was unclear whether the monkey died of suffocation, decapitation, or dehydration or whether the death was instantaneous or involved prolonged pain and distress.
PPI’s issues extend beyond animal welfare to public health concerns related to the Zika virus. The New Times reported that there are concerns that PPI could become a Zika incubator, as primates are kept in outdoor cages and can carry the virus. Infected monkeys have already been discovered in Zika-affected areas in Brazil.
One monkey, Loretta, lived a life of pain and loneliness at PPI. You can read Loretta’s tragic story and take action to demand that PPI release information about her present whereabouts.
UPDATE ON PAUL W BARRAS
As of 2019-10-01 Paul W. Barras seems to have resigned from Primate Products, Inc. and as of 2020-09-01 added as an officer at DOCTOR PAUL DVM, LLC / working as caring vet at the Parkway Animal Hospital in Panama City, Florida
