Baboons escape in Sydney

Baboons' escape prompts hospital protest

Protesters fighting for an end to animal experimentation have gathered out the front of a Sydney hospital after three baboons escaped from its animal research facility.
About 100 people turned up to the protest at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Camperdown on Sunday afternoon to call for an end to animal experimentation.
The protest was organised after a 15-year-old baboon and his two female companions escaped while being transported to the hospital's animal research facility on Tuesday evening.
The baboons are part of a colony in western Sydney used for research on reproductive health, kidney disease and gestational diabetes.
Video footage of the three baboons running around a car park made headlines, with the NSW health minister insisting the primates were not at the facility for research purposes but rather the male was due for a vasectomy.
The incident has reignited concerns over the welfare of animals used for experiments.
Activist group Sydney Save Animals in Laboratories on Sunday said people had come together to take a stand for all the animals being tested at RPA.
"We have a large crowd of concerned citizens of Sydney, concerned about any bio security risks that could have happened with the baboons that escaped the other day," a spokesman said in a Facebook video.
Many protesters held signs of photos of the three runaway baboons and with posters that said "No excuse for animal abuse" and "Shut down animal labs".

https://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/baboons-escape-prompts-hospital-protest/news-story/cc7ef635693a87cf36653f545d4f26cf

I am surprised they keep baboons for that.

The costs and complexity would make it a big decision

The baboons that escaped in Sydney yesterday are bred for medical researchers who use them to pioneer new treatments for illnesses.
The three primates – one male and two females – managed to get free while being transported to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in the inner west.
The male was on his way to have a vasectomy, while the two females were said to be there to keep him company.
An investigation is now under way after the bizarre incident that left people and authorities scrambling.
A NSW Health spokesperson said the baboons were returned to the breeding colony at Wallacia in Sydney’s west late last night and it was understood the vasectomy was not performed.
Animals are bred specifically for animal research at the National Health and Medical Research Council baboon colony in Wallacia.
A spokeswoman from the Sydney Local Health District told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2016 that the baboons were used for research on treatments for conditions like pre-eclampsia, complicated diabetes, kidney disorders and vascular diseases.
But the article voiced concerns that “Frankenstein-like surgical experiments” were being done on primates that may have included an apparent cover-up of a kidney transplant from a pig to a baboon.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/animals/facility-where-frankensteinlike-surgical-experiments-are-done-on-baboons/news-story/fe3a33e718357e8a3743b0723e17548c