Yerkes Mangabey Permit Application Withdrawn

December 2006

The Yerkes Primate Center, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, has withdrawn its application to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) for an endangered species permit that would have allowed the center to conduct medical experiments on up to 100 sooty mangabeys, which are protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The center had also proposed to kill around 60 elderly and/or what it called “genetically redundant” mangabeys living at its facility. In exchange for permission from the USFWS to harm and kill mangabeys, the center said it would provide $30,000 a year to a mangabey field research project in the Ivory Coast (see the September 2006 IPPL News, page 6).

However, this surprise withdrawal comes in the wake of a sudden USFWS decision to consider downlisting the sooty mangabey from “endangered” to a category of animals that are less at risk. This change in classification status would mean that Yerkes could conduct what the government calls “lethal take” on mangabeys without the trouble of applying for any permits. A total of around 230 sooty mangabeys live at the primate center.

IPPL members and others protest Yerkes’ initial proposal

In the September issue of IPPL News we asked members to send letters to the USFWS to express their opposition to the initial application by Yerkes. Many members did so. Other organizations campaigned actively against the application:

1. A coalition of organizations prepared a detailed legal analysis of the application and called for it to be rejected. The analysis was conducted by the Washington law firm Meyer and Glitzenstein. Groups signing on to the letter were the International Primate Protection League, the American Anti-Vivisection Society, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the Animal Protection Institute, the Animal Welfare Institute, In Defense of Animals, the New England Anti-Vivisection Society, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and the Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine.
2. The International Primate Protection League sent a detailed letter of opposition to the application signed by Chairwoman Shirley McGreal, in addition to signing the coalition letter.
3. A letter opposing the application was signed by Dr. Jane Goodall, Dr. Roger Fouts, Debbie Fouts, Dr. William McGrew, Dr. Mark Bekoff, and many more scientists.
4. Dr. Christophe Boesch, a field primatologist who has worked for over 30 years in the Ivory Coast, wrote to the USFWS to suggest that the funding of conservation work was a worthy goal in itself and should not be used as a justification for killing captive monkeys.
5. Over 500 letters reached the USFWS from concerned citizens.

Yerkes permit would have set “dangerous precedent”

On 24 July 2006, Amy Brisendine of the USFWS contacted Jim Else of the Yerkes Primate Center, requesting additional documentation about the Yerkes mangabey colony and how it was managed; she also asked for details of exactly how the Ivory Coast field project would benefit the sooty mangabey species. Ms. Brisendine even suggested that Yerkes might have violated the conditions of its existing permit by intentionally infecting six mangabeys with SIVsm (mangabey simian immunodeficiency virus). Mangabeys are natural carriers of a form of the AIDS virus, but they do not get sick from it; however, three of the six infected mangabeys had undergone invasive surgery to remove their thymus glands prior to being exposed to the virus.

On 14 September 2006 Jim Else sent a letter to Ms. Brisendine stating that Yerkes was withdrawing its permit application in light of a possible change in the sooty mangabey’s classification status.

There were several media stories about Yerkes’ withdrawal of its permit application. Animal protection groups expressed approval. They were quoted as feeling concern that the Yerkes proposal might have been the first of many applications seeking permission to harm endangered species in exchange for financial contributions by monkey exploiters to conservation. As coalition attorney Tanya Sanerib remarked, “If the application had been approved, it would have established a dangerous precedent.”

USFWS reclassification poses new threat to mangabeys

Now the mangabeys face yet another danger. In the 3 November 2006 issue of the journal Science, Michael Kreger of the USFWS confirmed that work was under way to reclassify the sooty mangabey. (The sooty mangabey is considered by some to be simply a subspecies of the white-collared mangabey, though others believe the sooty mangabey to be a distinct species; Yerkes would like the USFWS to consider the conservation status of sooties separately.) However, news of the mangabeys’ proposed downlisting—and the danger to the animals that this possibility represents—has not yet been widely reported in animal protection circles.

The proposal appears designed primarily, if not solely, to make life easy for Yerkes researchers, so that they can proceed with their plans to kill and harm their mangabeys. But if this plan succeeds, repercussions will be felt far beyond Yerkes’ walls: success would mean that, in the future, the endangered status of any animal population could be changed—not according to scientific data—but simply for the convenience of powerful institutions.

The USFWS claims to be under-funded and under-staffed. Its law enforcement division has had its funding cut, and its undercover operations division, which had caught so many smugglers, has been eliminated. It was therefore surprising to IPPL to learn that the Service is planning to waste U.S. taxpayers’ money and staff time preparing a proposal just to downgrade the sooty mangabey on the Endangered Species List. With the world’s wildlife in such a precarious condition, IPPL is concerned that USFWS resources are being spent on a project that could actually result in harm to animals.

Prepare to Help Yerkes Mangabeys: Sign Up for IPPL’s E-Alerts

The USFWS is required to have a 30-day public comment period for actions the agency is considering. As of press time, they have not yet opened the comment period for their proposed reclassification of the sooty mangabeys’ conservation status. If you are interested in taking action to oppose the potential downlisting of sooty mangabeys to a less-than-endangered status, please join IPPL’s E-Alert list and we will send you notification as soon as the comment period opens. We will then provide contact information for you to send protest letters to oppose the reclassification of these monkeys simply to facilitate Yerkes’ desire to conduct animal research. To join, simply go to our Web site (www.ippl.org) and click on the Alerts link.