Actor Casey Affleck has written a letter in support to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary in support of Sen. Joan B. Lovely’s bill, Bill S.1167.
This bill is an act to protect nonhuman primate (NHP) infants in research institutions and product testing facilities.
The bill reads that “a research institution or product testing facility that utilizes infant NHPs in experiments shall not remove or separately house the infants from their respective biological mothers for the purpose of research, experimentation or product testing.”
Further, it states that “an infant NHP may be temporarily removed or separately housed from its mother only for the medical welfare of either or both NHPs. Upon removal or separation, psychological and physical distress shall be minimized for both NHPs and reunion of the NHPs shall not be delayed unless medically necessary.”
Affleck’s letter is transcribed verbatim below:
“Dear Senator Edwards and Representative Day,
I am writing to urge you to lend your full support to the groundbreaking bill (H.1948, S.1167) recently introduced in the Massachusetts legislature to protect infant primates from the devastation of being taken away from their mothers for experimentation. As a parent myself and someone who is close to my own mom, I find these sorts of experiments especially devastating.
I recently learned from PETA that one laboratory in Massachusetts was removing infant rhesus macaques from their mothers at birth for the sole purpose of deliberately interfering with their visual development by sewing the baby monkeys’ eyelids shut or forcing them to live in strobe-like lighting conditions. Many of these young monkeys were then killed and dissected. As disgusted as I am to learn this was happening at all, I am grateful that Massachusetts leadership is working to make sure this horrific practice never happens again in the state.
I applaud you both and the other Massachusetts legislators working to protect infant monkeys in the state of Massachusetts. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Casey Affleck”
