 |
|
|
1981: Chester
PETA cofounders Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco found Chester, a crab-eating macaque, and 16 other monkeys in a filthy federally funded laboratory in Silver Spring, Maryland, when Pacheco was hired as volunteer. When Pacheco took the position to learn more about how animals are exploited in laboratories, he never guessed it would lead to the first-ever prosecution and conviction of an experimenter on cruelty-to-animals charges or that this would be the first of many undercover investigations.
Laboratory director Edward Taub had cut the nerves in the spines of most of the monkeys, leaving them without feeling in one or more limbs. Stuffed into tiny cages in a dirty, unventilated back room, the half-starved monkeys had chewed off their own fingers in frustration. They suffered untreated broken bones, tooth decay, and infected wounds. On the strength of PETA's evidence, police raided the laboratory, seized the monkeys, and arrested Taub.
Chester believed he was the leader of the colony of wounded monkeys, even though he could only reach through the bars of his cage and touch the tips of the other monkeys' fingers. Because he was a "control" monkey, he was not surgically mutilated, but when lab workers took the other wounded, terrified monkeys from their cages for experiments, which included pinching their bodies with pliers, Chester would scream with rage at the injustice and beat the floor of his prison. Chester was eventually able to live with some dignity and peace, in the nonpublic area of a large zoo. With two of his companions, Sisyphus and Haydn, he spent his remaining years in a large sunny enclosure, with plenty of healthy food and fresh air.
Back to main
|
|
|
