Two Monkeys Put to Death After High Court Gives OK

Two monkeys that had been part of a decade-long animal rights battle were put to death Friday hours after medical researchers received U.S. Supreme Court clearance to euthanize and experiment on them.

The macaques Titus and Allen were among 17 monkeys confiscated by authorities from a Silver Spring, Md., lab in 1981 amid charges of cruelty.

The National Institutes of Health was given custody of the animals and housed them and two others at Tulane University’s Delta Regional Primate Center in Covington, 30 miles north of New Orleans.

The pair were killed within hours of the Supreme Court ruling, said Dr. Peter Gerone of the center.

“The animals slipped from surgical anesthesia to death with no problems whatsoever,” he said.

Brain and euthanasia experiments were performed on Titus after he was put to death and before he died, Gerone said.

“I think it’s best for the monkeys and I’m glad for them that we can do something to relieve their suffering,” he said.

The government said experiments already conducted on the animals could aid the rehabilitation of stroke and accident victims. Gerone said the brain experiments for Titus and Allen would provide valuable information for the treatment of brain injuries.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals had been trying for years to win custody of the animals, saying the NIH did not properly care for them.

Five of the animals were placed in a zoo after being taken from the Maryland lab. Eight had died or been destroyed before this week.

Gerone said the center’s veterinarians had determined the health of Titus and Allen had deteriorated to the point that they were suffering and should be put to death.

Animal rights groups tried to stop the euthanasia in federal courts. They won a temporary victory Wednesday when Justice Anthony M. Kennedy issued a temporary restraining order. Kennedy joined seven other justices on Friday, however, in lifting that order. Justice Antonin Scalia did not participate.

Members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals had hoped for a court order allowing their own veterinarians to examine Titus and Allen to verify the animals’ poor health.

Meanwhile, it was reported that the animal rights group killed 32 animals at its Aspen Hill, Md., sanctuary in the last year after it could not find homes for them.

News that the group put to death 18 rabbits and 14 roosters it had previously “rescued” from allegedly inhumane conditions was first reported Thursday in the Montgomery (Md.) Journal, and later by the Washington Post.

The rabbits had been removed from a Montgomery County school last summer, and the roosters were confiscated from a home in Washington where they were kept for use in religious ceremonies.

Ingrid Newkirk, director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said the group has never been opposed to the humane killing of animals. She said she saw no inconsistency between opposition to euthanasia of the Silver Spring monkeys and the group’s euthanasia of the rabbits and chickens.

“We will not overcrowd our animals,” she said. “We really didn’t have anything else to do. And so euthanasia was carried out with a great deal of concern.”