Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., hit out at a South Carolina research laboratory over its alleged treatment of animal test subjects after multiple primates escaped from the company's facilities last week.
More than 40 primates escaped from the scientific research facility Alpha Genesis last week, an incident that prompted local officials to use traps and thermal imaging equipment in an attempt to recapture the animals. Thirty-two of the primates have been returned to the facility, including two rhesus macaque monkeys who were recaptured on Tuesday.
Mace, whose district includes Yemassee, where the facility is located, has sharply criticized the company over their research involving primates, writing a letter to the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture with her concerns about the animals' welfare.
"We are writing with urgent concerns regarding federal oversight of Alpha Genesis, a company which manages a nonhuman primate breeding and experimentation laboratory located in my Congressional district," Mace wrote.
She noted that the facility received almost $20 million in federal funding this year alone, which was used "to breed, confine and experiment on primates at its facilities in South Carolina."
Mace wrote that records show the facility conducts "painful and deadly experiments" on these primates, adding that, "while in the care of Alpha Genesis, monkeys have frozen to death, died of dehydration, and been killed by other distressed primates."
The congresswoman went on to request a briefing on the situation at the Alpha Genesis facility, noting that federal inspectors previously cited the company for violations of the Animal Welfare Act in 2022.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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