UPDATE: Bainbridge residents and PETA bring concerns about primate facility to city leaders
The 200-acre animal husbandry facility would eventually house 30,000 monkeys that will be raised and shipped out for research.
BAINBRIDGE, Ga. (WALB) - Outrage and concerns are coming from Bainbridge residents and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) officials, as they anticipate the arrival of the largest monkey breeding facility in the United States.
Those concerns were brought to the Bainbridge City Council meeting on Tuesday where several residents spoke out.
Earlier in 2024, Bainbridge city leaders agreed on a 100% tax abatement for 10 years of the project. The 200-acre animal husbandry facility would eventually house 30,000 monkeys that will be raised and shipped out for research. Investors expect the facility will be fully operational by the end of 2024.
“How are we supposed to survive this? They have diseases. We have a huge water right here, the Flint River, so the environment is a big thing too. It’s overall jacked up,” said Yvena Merritt, a concerned resident.
The $396 million investment would bring over 200 jobs to Bainbridge, but some residents and PETA officials are concerned more about the animals that will be living inside the facility.
Those concerns include the number of monkeys that will be in town compared to the city of Bainbridge’s current population. The U.S. Census estimates that there are over 14,000 people who live in Bainbridge.
Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel, PETA’s senior science advisor on primate experimentation, also said there’s a risk of dangerous pathogens and diseases that can be exposed to the Bainbridge community.
“The cost that this community is going to bear when they drop 30,000 monkeys into an environment that has no business holding 30,000 monkeys. It’s their tax dollars, it’s their backyards, it’s their environment. They’re the ones bearing the risks,” Jones-Engel said.
Ted Lee, another concerned resident, said that the city has not been completely transparent about the ins and outs of the facility.
“They’re an invasive species and 30,000 of them, we’d just be overrun with monkeys,” Lee said.
But Rick McCaskill, the director of the development authority, said they’ve been transparent about the facility and that the number of monkeys or risk of environmental impacts are extremely low considering the trained veterinarians and staff that will be working with the monkeys.
“There are going to be a lot of monkeys, there’s no question. We got more cows in the county then we got people too, and we got more chickens in the county then we have people too,” McCaskill said. “So, you got to kind of take a deep breath and look through all the misinformation out there.”
While a representative from Safer Human Medicine, the company that owns the facility, wasn’t at Tuesday’s meeting, they shared an open letter.
People who live near the facility believe the facility will bring down property values.
“Was a decision made based on good information? Because I think information has been exposed now, and it’s going to hurt my property value. There’s no doubt about it,” a concerned resident said.
The city council didn’t directly address any of the concerns at Tuesday’s meeting, but residents and PETA officials said they won’t stop speaking out until the monkey breeding facility is shut down. They plan to attend the county commission meeting on Tuesday, January 23 at 7 p.m. to share these same concerns.
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