US plan to breed 10,000 monkeys a year for medical experiments means industrial farming of primates, say critics

Exclusive: Numbers could be increased to 30,000 a year as Covid pandemic intensifies worldwide demand for lab animals, writes Jane Dalton

(AFP via Getty Images)

A plan to build a centre breeding 10,000 monkeys a year for medical research will mean the “industrial-scale farming” of non-human primates, animal-protectionists are warning.

An animal-research company wants to build a multi-million-dollar hub in Texas that is expected to become America’s largest monkey-breeding base.

Numbers could even be scaled up in the future to 30,000 a year, bosses say.