AETA and OHSU primate testing and Zoos clearly seemed cruel to me as a child

http://www.organicconsumers.org/patent/glowingmonkey.cfm

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2010/10/402828.shtml

http://bambuser.com/channel/maryeng1/broadcast/1063905

unbelievable

crassness

my heart was racing to hear of the torture of these animals
and to see the pictures the fellow brought in

and to hear him get really foggy on the nicotine experiments on pregnant primates.

he sat beside me.  it was i who felt like i was torturing him with the clarity of my questions about who is legal representation and pharmeceutical litigation.

poor thing.

i wanted to tell him i liked his grey suit.  it looked super prada minimalist.
fashion for animal torturers.

i told him i saw the facility.

i didnt tell him what the animals clearly communicated:
we are in hell
help us out.

they banged on the walls!!!

written for anthro last january:

Visiting the zoo reminded me of a surprising experience I had involving the Rhesus Macaque, a popular animal for animal research.  When I was in Portland Oregon, a friend who worked for OHSU unwittingly took me by the OHSU macaque pen.  He did not know how well I like animals.  We climbed to the top of a platform.   It was my very first time as an adult to see non-human primates.  As a child I found zoos to be traumatizing. I remember being bewildered at the at the Washington D.C. Zoo. Even as a child I could see that the gorillas behind plexiglass were in obvious distress.  The gorillas banged on the glass and lumbered around as though depressed.  I thought adults were not so smart for thinking they were entertaining me, because it was like a nightmare.

The macaques (maybe fifty in number or more)  were in a corrugated metal pen at least 100x100 feet, with piles of bananas around and wheels to run on.  There were little huts to hide in.  It was raining heavily and very muddy.  The mothers held their babies protectively as if they were afraid I would take their young.  Some actively called out or made demonstration of aggression or fear.  Some were oblivious. I began to imitate their speech sound (a clicking sound) and focused on communicating solacing tones and energy.  Some began to put their fingers at and underneath the base of the corrugated metal.  They started tapping and banging on the metal.  When we walked down the platform stairs and along the opposite side of the compound, they put their fingers underneath the wall following the sounds of us walking. There fingertips were reaching out and others continued banging on the walls. Obviously they desired release.  I kept talking sympathetically to them, and I think we very clearly communicated quite a lot of information.

I began to the research what types of tests are run there and what alternatives are available.  The test most commonly cited by opponents is nicotine injection for pregnant mothers. The last I heard, the suburb where the facility was besieged by persistent activists and irritated at the stench so much so that neighbors united against the nuisance factor of it.  So plans were being made to take the primate lab further out from the city.  A fellow, Matt Rossel of (non-violent group) In Defense of Animals had worked undercover for OHSU as a lab tech following a stint undercover at a mink farm.  I heard him speaking one day on the radio about the stresses on the legs and feet of circus elephants.

I felt strangely privileged to see the macaques.

I then found lots of disturbing footage from labs in Europe and hubbub regarding the Huntington Labs, the Shac 7, and the stress disorders primates undergo.  This was 2006.  The Patriot Act had recently been passed and with it what is known as the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, which effectively makes information distribution criminal.  Currently some kids are being hassled over a flyer, the premise being that disseminating information that might disrupt an animal enterprise is a terrorist activity---this will be a very interesting new area for human rights law, free speech, and animal law.  The international activist web ring “Indymedia” was at that time put in the FBI's terrorist watch group.  This Portland version of the website has a very active animal page regarding fur store protests and OHSU primate testing activism.

I remember one day hearing of a suicide of animal activist in jail that was thought to be a murder.

Portland's activist community is quite vibrant, with law students (many enviro law from Lewis and Clark) filming all activist activities for future litigation in the event of police brutality.  A nice foundation, The Northwest Center for Constitutional Law was established after a $800,000 suit victory regarding a 2003 George Bush visit protest at which police used pepper spray in a baby's face.