Nepal Breeds + Exports Monkeys For Research !

nbu@biodiv-nepal.gov.np, mfsc@mail.com.np, info@tourism.gov.np, motca@ntc.net.np, info@most.gov.np, info@opmcm.gov.np, schalise@opmcm.gov.np, rajbiraj@hotmail.com, rneberlin@t-online.de

Ministry of Forest & Soil Conservation
Mr. Gopal Rai
Singha Durbar, Kathmandu

Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation
Mr. Pradip Kumar Gyawali
Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu, Nepal

Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology
Mr. Man Bahadur Biswokarma
Singha Durbar, Kathmandu

Office of The Prime Minister and Council of Ministers
Rt. Honorable Prime Minister, Mr. Girija Prasad Koirala
Royal Palace, Defence
Singh Durbar
P.O. Box: 43312
Kathmandu, Nepal

Advisors of the Prime Minister
Dr. Suresh Chandra Chalise (Mr.), Foreign Affairs Advisor
Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers



Dear Dr. Rt. Honorable Prime Minister and Respected Ministers:

I kindly ask the government of Nepal to acknowledge worldwide concern about its export of monkeys for use in biomedical research. I am dismayed to learn about a breeding farm for Nepalese rhesus monkeys at Lele, Kathmandu Valley to fulfill an agreement between the Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) and its Nepali coordinate, the Nepal Natural History Society (NHS).

I urge officials to oppose the breeding and subsequent use of Nepalese monkeys in research laboratories. Please defend your country's treasured wildlife and enact laws to prohibit their export for scientific purposes. After the Indian ban on the overseas sale of rhesus monkeys for biomedical research, Western labs turned to Nepali monkeys. The WaNPRC-NHS alliance creates a dangerous precedent, opening the door for other foreign researchers to exploit Nepal's animal species.

No one can really track the surfeit of animal experiments performed at WaNPRC. Taxpayer dollars subsidize the Seattle, Washington facility where experimenters infect monkeys with SIV and HIV strains to form SHIV, a laboratory invention with no bearing on HIV in humans.

Cranial implants are surgically inserted in monkeys to see if they master tasks when electrically stimulated. Electrodes lodged in monkeys' brains and spinal cords allow one experimenter to record electrical variations while animals undergo taxing drills. Virginia M. Gunderson taught herself to trigger seizures in three-month old monkeys by bolting their heads into restraint devices and injecting chemicals into their brains. "Unfortunately," she wrote, "this procedure was not reliable in obtaining seizures on a regular basis."

It is difficult to imagine what method Ms. Gunderson next concocted for infant monkeys in her pursuit of more federal grants. Animals at research centers like WaNPRC suffer unceasing fear and pain for data that proves largely inapplicable to human health. There are too many physiological, cellular, genetic and psychological disparities between species for predictive extrapolation to humans. For example, researchers have conceded primates do not contract human AIDS or develop its clinical symptoms. Their immune system encounters the virus in a different manner than the human immune network.

Experimentation upon primates has not led to cures for AIDS, Alzheimer's, cancer, or other human ailments. Yet it has shown us monkeys are bright, perceptive beings with physiological and psychological instincts as intricate as our own.

In Nepal, Hindus celebrate monkeys as a reincarnation of Lord Hanuman. Buddhists feel the killing or mistreatment of any animal is wrong. Monkeys are an integral thread in Nepal's rich natural and cultural tapestry. Inside a lab, a monkey's life is reduced to boredom, loneliness and terror.

I respectfully ask Nepalese authorities to advocate progressive animal-free research techniques. Please eliminate breeding compounds and enforce laws that bar animal experimentation upon Nepalese monkeys.

Sincerely,