Residents of a Puerto Rican town are vowing to fight a planned monkey-breeding facility for fear that the primates will escape and overrun their community.
The facility, which will supply monkeys to pharmaceutical companies for research, was cleared for construction this week.
Locals in Guayama said on Friday they didn’t want their southern coastal town to become another Lajas — a town that today is plagued by monkeys that escaped decades ago from research facilities.
“It is certain that some monkeys are going to escape,” Guayama community leader Roberto Brito said. “This will affect agriculture and people’s health. ... We are not going to give up. We do not want the project there.”
But Mauritius-based company Bioculture’s local development and community coordinator, Jacinto Rivera Solivan, disputed the claim, saying the “probability of a monkey escaping is zero.”
Hundreds of people are signing a petition asking the governor of the US Caribbean territory and its resident commissioner to halt the project, Brito said.
Construction of the 1,200m² facility was temporarily suspended because Bioculture did not have the appropriate environmental permits, said Francisco Gonzalez Suarez, Guayama city planner.
They were awarded the permits this week, he said, but residents question why public hearings were not held.
Spokesman Felix Figueroa said Guayama Mayor Glorimari Jaime was not available for comment.
The facility will hold at least 3,000 macaque monkeys that will be sold for up to US$3,000 each, Gonzalez said.
Bioculture had considered building the facility in south Florida, but opted for Puerto Rico because the island’s pharmaceutical companies could test the animals without having to transport them elsewhere, Rivera said.
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