Baboon-gate has taken over the public consciousness, as a troop of baboons roamed free yesterday evening outside of a research facility at Royal Prince Alfred hospital in Sydney. It's prompted a debate into the legitmacy of animal testing in medical research.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard confirmed the baboons broke out of the truck after being transported from a colony in western Sydney to the hospital.
According to Hazzard, the male baboon was scheduled for a vasectomy to prevent him from "constantly breed[ing] within the troupe" because it would create genetic problems.
"He cut loose before the big cut," said Mr Hazzard.
While the break-out attempt has prompted many to reel in the absurdity of primates frequenting the streets of Sydney’s inner-west.
The baboons have garnered sympathy across the political spectrum with Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt saying, “My heart was with the baboons, [I] have to say.”
But beyond the absurdity of the baboons-on-the-loose emergency, the incident has prompted a broader discussion around the use of animals within medical research in Australia, and animal rights activists have voiced their concerns.
Today, Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi put forward a motion in the Senate about “the harm and suffering caused by animal testing.”
A National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) spokesperson told the Feed that animal rights activists take the position that no animal should be used for research without “viable alternatives”.
“Their arguments do not appear to recognise or consider relevant the benefits that this research has provided (and will continue to provide) to Australians and human health more broadly.
“There also seems to be an overstating of the option to use alternatives to the use of animals in research. For example, a recent Senate inquiry committee report in Australia noted that the development of viable alternatives to the use of non-human primates in some research has yet to reach a stage where alternatives can replace research using non-human primates,” the spokesperson said.
The baboons are understood to be part of a colony overseen by the Sydney Local Health District.
The NHMRC provides funding to “approximately” 90 instititions, however do not have information on the number of facilities for the breeding and holding of animals used for research in Australia.
In an interview on RN Breakfast, Helen Marston, the Chief Executive of Humane Research Australia, revealed that the most recent government statistics - gathered from 2017 - showed there are currently 272 primates used in “experiments” for medical research in Australia.
Marston claimed there were hundreds of primates from baboons, marmosets and macaques held in breeding facilities in Sydney.
“Quite a number of different experiments that they use for primates are usually using very invasive research, including brain and vision experiments. Baboons have been used in xenotransplantation research and diabetes research that involves the transplantation of whole organs, from pigs to primates and usually to the brain.”
Marston believes that stopping animal testing won’t affect medical research saying using animal research “won’t save your child”.
She says, “it would be better to use more human relevant methods of research that are more likely to provide genuine medical progress.”
Should we end animal testing?
An NHMRC Spokesperson says despite the progress made in medical research there are risks involved in stopping animal testing, a practice that’s not been banned anywhere.
“While there has been significant progress in the development of alternatives to the use of animals in medical research, alternatives are not yet available for all areas of important medical research.
“If animal testing was stopped completely without the availability of alternative methods, this would pose a risk to further advances in medical science, advances in animal and human health and the protection of the environment.”
