Shamrock Farm
Encyclopedia
Shamrock Farm was Britain's only non-human primate
importation and quarantine
centre, located in Small Dole
, near Brighton in West Sussex
. The centre, owned by Bausch and Lomb, and run by Charles River Laboratories, Inc.
for Shamrock (GB) Ltd, closed in 2000 after a 15-month protest by British animal rights activists, who campaigned under the name "Save the Shamrock Monkeys."
Primates captured from the wild, or purchased from breeding facilities, were held there for two months for tests, until they were ready to be sold to animal-testing
laboratories across Europe. It was Europe's largest supplier of primates to laboratories, and held up to 350 monkeys at a time, processing 2,500 a year on average, and selling them for around £1,600 each. The company bought and sold baboon
s, macaque
s, grivet
, patas
, and squirrel monkey
s; almost all of the 2,467 macaque
s used in British laboratories in 1998 came through Shamrock. Its customers included Huntingdon Life Sciences
, SmithKline Beecham, GlaxoWellcome
, the Porton Down
military science park, and the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London, Glasgow, and Manchester, according to Animal Aid
.
According to Keith Mann
, Shamrock also took primates from British zoos and theme parks, including 83 macaques from Longleat
, 32 from Woburn Abbey
, and several different species from Ravensden and Robin Hill on the Isle of Wight.
The company's main customer was Huntingdon Life Sciences, which in one year purchased 373 cage-bred macaques, 440 wild-caught monkeys, eight squirrel monkeys, and 37 baboons, according to documents obtained by activists. Keith Mann writes that Shamrock delivered nearly 50,000 monkeys to laboratories in Britain during the 1990s.
(BUAV) in found high mortality rates among the monkeys from enteritis
and pneumonia
, while other monkeys were being killed they were underweight or suffered from deformities. The primates were allegedly denied socialization, stimulation, or environmental enrichment, and engaged in stereotypical behaviors, such as continuous rocking, twisting, self-mutilation, and wailing. BUAV also witnessed rough handling by staff, who were alleged to have been inadequately trained.
Following the BUAV investigation, the company announced in 1993 that it would stop buying wild primates. It started trading instead in primates from breeding centres in China
, Mauritius
, and the Philippines
, although no laws exist in these countries to prevent stocks of primates being brought in from the wild.
Primate
A primate is a mammal of the order Primates , which contains prosimians and simians. Primates arose from ancestors that lived in the trees of tropical forests; many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging three-dimensional environment...
importation and quarantine
Quarantine
Quarantine is compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian quarantena, meaning forty-day period....
centre, located in Small Dole
Small Dole
Small Dole is a village in the Horsham District of West Sussex, in England. It lies on the A2037 road two miles south of Henfield.In the late 1970s the Church of England altered its ecclesiastical parish boundaries, transferring Small Dole from the parish of Upper Beeding to the parish of...
, near Brighton in West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
. The centre, owned by Bausch and Lomb, and run by Charles River Laboratories, Inc.
Charles River Laboratories, Inc.
Charles River Laboratories, Inc. is an American corporation specializing in a broad spectrum of pre-clinical and clinical laboratory services for the pharmaceutical, medical device and biotechnology industries. It is the world's largest supplier of animals for laboratory experimentation and has...
for Shamrock (GB) Ltd, closed in 2000 after a 15-month protest by British animal rights activists, who campaigned under the name "Save the Shamrock Monkeys."
Background
The company was set up in 1954, trading in wild-caught primates until 1993 and captive-bred ones thereafter. The animals were held in windowless cabins in the company's 40000 sq ft (3,716.1 m²) facility, surrounded by 16ft-high fences, razor wire, and cameras. A touch-sensitive wire ran along the base of the perimeter, with CCTV cameras zooming in on any spot that was touched.Primates captured from the wild, or purchased from breeding facilities, were held there for two months for tests, until they were ready to be sold to animal-testing
Animal testing
Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments. Worldwide it is estimated that the number of vertebrate animals—from zebrafish to non-human primates—ranges from the tens of millions to more than 100 million...
laboratories across Europe. It was Europe's largest supplier of primates to laboratories, and held up to 350 monkeys at a time, processing 2,500 a year on average, and selling them for around £1,600 each. The company bought and sold baboon
Baboon
Baboons are African and Arabian Old World monkeys belonging to the genus Papio, part of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. There are five species, which are some of the largest non-hominoid members of the primate order; only the mandrill and the drill are larger...
s, macaque
Macaque
The macaques constitute a genus of Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. - Description :Aside from humans , the macaques are the most widespread primate genus, ranging from Japan to Afghanistan and, in the case of the barbary macaque, to North Africa...
s, grivet
Grivet
The grivet is an Old World monkey with long white tufts of hair along the sides of the face. Some authorities consider this and all of the members of the genus Chlorocebus to be a single species, Cercopithecus aethiops. As here defined, the grivet is restricted to Ethiopia, Sudan, Djibouti and...
, patas
Patas Monkey
The patas monkey , also known as the Wadi monkey or Hussar monkey, is a ground-dwelling monkey distributed over semi-arid areas of West Africa, and into East Africa. It is the only species classified in the genus Erythrocebus...
, and squirrel monkey
Squirrel monkey
The squirrel monkeys are the New World monkeys of the genus Saimiri. They are the only genus in the subfamily Saimirinae.Squirrel monkeys live in the tropical forests of Central and South America in the canopy layer. Most species have parapatric or allopatric ranges in the Amazon, while S...
s; almost all of the 2,467 macaque
Macaque
The macaques constitute a genus of Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. - Description :Aside from humans , the macaques are the most widespread primate genus, ranging from Japan to Afghanistan and, in the case of the barbary macaque, to North Africa...
s used in British laboratories in 1998 came through Shamrock. Its customers included Huntingdon Life Sciences
Huntingdon Life Sciences
Huntingdon Life Sciences is a contract animal-testing company founded in 1952 in England, with facilities in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire; Eye, Suffolk; New Jersey in the U.S., and Japan...
, SmithKline Beecham, GlaxoWellcome
GlaxoWellcome
GlaxoWellcome was a medicine wholeseller. It merged with SmithKline Beecham in 2000 to form GlaxoSmithKline.1978 - Through the acquisition of Meyer Laboratories Inc, Glaxo's business in the US is started, to become Glaxo Inc from 1980. The broad-spectrum injectable antibiotic Zinacef is...
, the Porton Down
Porton Down
Porton Down is a United Kingdom government and military science park. It is situated slightly northeast of Porton near Salisbury in Wiltshire, England. To the northwest lies the MoD Boscombe Down test range facility which is operated by QinetiQ...
military science park, and the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London, Glasgow, and Manchester, according to Animal Aid
Animal Aid
Animal Aid, founded in 1977, is a British animal rights organisation. The group campaigns peacefully against all forms of animal abuse and promotes a cruelty-free lifestyle. It also investigates and exposes animal cruelty....
.
According to Keith Mann
Keith Mann
Keith Mann is a British animal rights campaigner and writer, alleged by police in 2005 to be at the top of the Animal Liberation Front pyramid. He is the author of From Dusk 'til Dawn: An Insider's View of the Growth of the Animal Liberation Movement...
, Shamrock also took primates from British zoos and theme parks, including 83 macaques from Longleat
Longleat
Longleat is an English stately home, currently the seat of the Marquesses of Bath, adjacent to the village of Horningsham and near the towns of Warminster in Wiltshire and Frome in Somerset. It is noted for its Elizabethan country house, maze, landscaped parkland and safari park. The house is set...
, 32 from Woburn Abbey
Woburn Abbey
Woburn Abbey , near Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, is a country house, the seat of the Duke of Bedford and the location of the Woburn Safari Park.- Pre-20th century :...
, and several different species from Ravensden and Robin Hill on the Isle of Wight.
The company's main customer was Huntingdon Life Sciences, which in one year purchased 373 cage-bred macaques, 440 wild-caught monkeys, eight squirrel monkeys, and 37 baboons, according to documents obtained by activists. Keith Mann writes that Shamrock delivered nearly 50,000 monkeys to laboratories in Britain during the 1990s.
BUAV investigation
In 1992, an undercover investigation by the British Union for the Abolition of VivisectionBritish Union for the Abolition of Vivisection
The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection is a British animal protection and advocacy group that campaigns for the abolition of all animal experiments...
(BUAV) in found high mortality rates among the monkeys from enteritis
Enteritis
In medicine, enteritis, from Greek words enteron and suffix -itis , refers to inflammation of the small intestine. It is most commonly caused by the ingestion of substances contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms. Symptoms include abdominal pain, cramping, diarrhea, dehydration and fever...
and pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
, while other monkeys were being killed they were underweight or suffered from deformities. The primates were allegedly denied socialization, stimulation, or environmental enrichment, and engaged in stereotypical behaviors, such as continuous rocking, twisting, self-mutilation, and wailing. BUAV also witnessed rough handling by staff, who were alleged to have been inadequately trained.
Following the BUAV investigation, the company announced in 1993 that it would stop buying wild primates. It started trading instead in primates from breeding centres in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
, and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, although no laws exist in these countries to prevent stocks of primates being brought in from the wild.
See also
- Animal Liberation FrontAnimal Liberation FrontThe Animal Liberation Front is an international, underground leaderless resistance that engages in illegal direct action in pursuit of animal liberation...
- Animal testing on non-human primatesAnimal testing on non-human primatesExperiments involving non-human primates include toxicity testing for medical and non-medical substances; studies of infectious disease, such as HIV and hepatitis; neurological studies; behavior and cognition; reproduction; genetics; and xenotransplantation. Around 65,000–70,000 are used every...
- NafovannyNafovannyNafovanny in Vietnam is the largest captive-breeding primate facility in the world, supplying long-tailed macaques to animal testing laboratories, including Huntingdon Life Sciences in the UK and Covance in Germany.-Background:...
- International trade in primates
- Stop Huntingdon Animal CrueltyStop Huntingdon Animal CrueltyStop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty is an international animal rights campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences , Europe's largest contract animal-testing laboratory. HLS tests medical and non-medical substances on around 75,000 animals every year, from rats to primates...
- Save the Newchurch Guinea PigsSave the Newchurch Guinea PigsSave the Newchurch Guinea Pigs was a six-year campaign by British animal rights activists to close a farm in Newchurch, Staffordshire that bred guinea pigs for animal research...
- Save the Hill Grove CatsSave the Hill Grove CatsSave the Hill Grove Cats was a British animal rights campaign set up in 1997 with the aim of closing Hill Grove Farm near Witney in Oxfordshire. The farm, owned by Christopher Brown, was the last commercial breeder of cats for laboratories in the United Kingdom...
- Leaderless resistanceLeaderless resistanceLeaderless resistance, or phantom cell structure, is a political resistance strategy in which small, independent groups , including individuals , challenge an established adversary such as a government. Leaderless resistance can encompass anything from non-violent disruption and civil disobedience...
Further reading
- "Save The Shamrock Monkeys Campaign", 10-minute video on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. - "Good riddance to Shamrock Farm", Animal Aid, June 2000
- Interview with "Save the Shamrock Monkeys" campaign, Arkangel magazine, 2000
- "Save the Shamrock Monkeys" website
- "Shamrock", British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection