Animals Injured in Research : Zoo’s Expert to Try to Retrain Monkeys

A San Diego Zoo expert has been called upon to help rehabilitate five research monkeys who lost their social behavior patterns in experiments conducted six years ago in Maryland. This marks the zoo’s first direct involvement in the rehabilitation of animals used in biological research.

The monkeys were flown in Tuesday from a Covington, La., research center where they had been kept after police seized them six years ago from a research scientist in Maryland who allegedly abused them.

“This is the first time we’ve been called upon to use our expertise to rehabilitate animals who were part of the biological research community,” said Jeff Jouett, San Diego Zoo spokesman.

The macaques monkeys, native to Indonesia, were among 17 animals used in experiments six years ago by Dr. Edward Taub, a neuroscientist at the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Md.

Not Physically Hurt

The monkeys, now in quarantine at the zoo, were part of a control group and thus were not physically injured. However, they suffered psychological and social problems, Jouett said.

“Their problem derives from isolation,” Jouett said Wednesday. “They didn’t pick up the socially significant behavior cues to help them get along with the rest of the group.”

The monkeys are being held in quarantine until Oct. 1, when they will be transferred to the San Diego Wild Animal Park’s Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species.

There Dr. Donald Lindburg will attempt to re-socialize the animals, Jouett said.

Citing a report by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Poolesville, Md., Jouett said Taub practiced “surgical deafferentation” on the monkeys, a process in which he cut sensory nerves in their necks at the spinal cord, leaving them without feeling in their forehands and shoulders.

Animals Kept Apart

He then experimented with ways to increase their mobility, the report said, in an attempt to discover ways to help human stroke victims. During his six years of research he kept the animals in separate cages.

Police interrupted his research when they raided his center in 1981. Taub was found guilty of six counts of animal cruelty. The Maryland Court of Appeals overturned the conviction, however, saying the charges were not valid because the research was conducted with federal funds.

After a six-year stay at NIH in Maryland, the monkeys were transferred last year to the Delta Regional Primate Research Center in Covington, La., which is operated by Tulane University.

Jouett called Lindburg “the perfect person to handle” the monkeys, explaining that he is recognized as a world expert on macaques. Lindburg is an adjunct professor at UCLA.

The rehabilitation is expected to take a year, Jouett said, after which the monkeys will be transferred to an undisclosed California zoo.