Zika Spread Prompts Fife Woman to Protest in Florida to Demand Closure of Monkey Prisons

For Immediate Release:

10 August 2016

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]

ZIKA SPREAD PROMPTS FIFE WOMAN TO PROTEST IN FLORIDA TO DEMAND CLOSURE OF MONKEY PRISONS

PETA US Calls On Officials to Stop Massive Monkey Facilities From Becoming Virus Reservoirs

Fife, ScotlandWith the confirmation that Zika is now being locally transmitted in Florida, “pregnant” PETA US protesters, including 23-year-old Francesca Hill from Fife, converged in Miami yesterday to demand the closure of the massive monkey importation and breeding laboratories located in the state. These facilitiesincluding Primate Products, Inc., where PETA US exposed violations of animal-protection regulationsconfine thousands of monkeys used for experiments and breeding to unhygienic, outdoor open-air cages. These conditions are ripe for mosquito breeding and the infection of large populations of captive monkeys, who, like humans, can be infected with Zika by mosquitos.

More photos of Hill at the protest are available here, here, and here.

“We’re urging the Florida Department of Health to shut down the inhumane monkey-breeding facilities just outside Miami”, says Hill. “These monkey colonies have proved to be the perfect environment for Zika to thrive and are poised to become an even greater public health risk if these labs aren’t closed for good.”

Because the Zika virus can cause serious birth defects, PETA USwhose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”displayed signs proclaiming, “Babies at Risk!” And because the UK government recently warned its 50,000 annual travellers to Florida not to have unprotected sex, the protesters also displayed signs emblazoned with the words “No Sex for You!”

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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