- Safer Human Medicine wants to create a facility to house up to 30,000 monkeys, double Bainbridge’s human population.
- Multiple lawsuits including one from the Decatur County Commission have paused construction, while advocacy groups and PETA-backed scientists continue to challenge the plan.
- Watch the video to see why residents say they are against the facility.
BROADCAST SCRIPT
The "monkey farm" is not a joke. It's a project by Safer Human Medicine that could bring 30,000 monkeys to town, twice as many as the humans who live here.
This all started quietly in 2022 when Safer Human Medicine came to town.
Documents show the company and the Bainbridge Development Authority discussed the deal behind closed doors using code names like "Project Liberty" to keep it out of the spotlight.
"They didn't announce or say anything until after they signed everything. It was kind of like, 'Guess what? It's going to be in front of your house and across the road.' 30,000 monkeys, which we had no opportunity at all to voice our opinion," said Barer
David Barber and his wife Donna live just minutes from the proposed site.
He tells me they've already been warned that if the facility is built, their property value could take a serious hit.
"But if anything bad happened with the animals getting out, or odor, or noise, or anything like that, then none of this might not be worth anything," said Barber.
And beyond lost home value, many fear the project poses a serious public health risk.
PETA scientists say importing thousands of monkeys could expose Bainbridge to dangerous diseases.
"The primate importation pipeline, which brings monkeys from Southeast Asia and from Mauritius, has been absolutely riddled with dangerous infectious diseases. Tuberculosis, Malaria, Yersinia, Salmonella, Shigella, you name it," said Lisa Jones-Engel, PETA’s senior science advisor for primate experimentation.
Safer Human Medicine and the Bainbridge Development Authority say the project could bring in more than $300 Million in investment and hundreds of new jobs to the community.
But residents, animal welfare groups like PETA, and local advocates argue it's not worth the ethical cost.
"The confinement that they have to be in, in these kinds of facilities, as such smart, intelligent, emotional beings, it causes them to pull out their own hair, sometimes even bite off their own fingers and toes. It is not an environment that anybody wants to be working in, and those jobs are not going to be the jobs that Bainbridge people want," said Amy Meyer, PETA’s associate director for primate experimentation.
Right now, multiple lawsuits including one filed by the Decatur County Commission have paused construction.
Local groups and national advocates like Species Unite are keeping the pressure on through education and outreach even producing the new documentary "30,000 Monkeys in Our Backyard."
"We want them to know that this is the situation as it stands, and that you have the ability to fight back, that it is possible to beat these guys, because other places have beat these guys. And right now, two years later, Bainbridge is winning," said Santina Polky-Link, campaign manager for Species Unite.
The documentary will premiere in New York and will be available for everyone to watch for free on YouTube starting November 1st.
I've reached out to both Safer Human Medicine and the Bainbridge-Decatur County Development Authority.
SHM hasn't responded, and the Development Authority says they cannot comment until the judge makes a ruling.
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