https://www.change.org/p/karolinska-institute-please-stop-experimenting-on-monkeys
Karolinska Institutet is the last university in Scandinavia to use primates in research.
Animal Justice Project is partnering with Djurrättsalliansen to stop the import of 120 macaque monkeys into the university from the United States for inhumane and futile malaria research.
A group of animal researchers at Karolinska Institutet have received ethical approval to conduct a series of invasive experiments on the macaque monkeys in order to develop a vaccine against human malaria.
We are calling upon Karolinska Institutet to end the use of primates in research, and call off the import of these 120 monkeys. And we need your help!
The Swedish researchers will infect 120 macaque monkeys with malaria parasites and then perform multiple invasive procedures on the monkeys over a period of at least one year. The procedures will include bone marrow biopsies, repeated vaccinations and blood sampling (up to 25 times per year). Lymph node biopsies will be obtained from the armpit or groin.
Although the biopsies will be performed under general anaesthesia the monkeys will nevertheless experience pain and discomfort afterwards. All of the monkeys will be kept in cages, some with a floor area as small as two square meters. Stress and fear is imposed on monkeys used in experiments as a result of being caged, their inability to express normal behavior and separation from their family groups, something not accounted for when researchers put studies such as this into categories of severity.
Not only is using monkeys in this research at Karolinska Institutet unethical, EU law set down in Directive 2010/63/EU states that it is ‘essential, both on moral and scientific grounds, to ensure that each use of an animal is carefully evaluated as to the scientific or educational validity, usefulness and relevance of the expected result of that use’.
Please sign the petition today and urge Karolinska Institutet to end primate research!
