WHAT: A public protest for the thousands of primates enslaved and tortured by Harvard.

WHEN: Saturday, April 28, 2-5pm.

WHERE: Harvard Square, Massachusetts Ave, across from Au Bon Pain and "The Pit" in Cambridge on Massachusetts Avenue.

RSVP/INFO: If you can, please RSVP at: rayshick@msn.com or just answer this email or just show up. Signs & literature provided.

WHY: Primate research is on the rise! NIH-funded primate research rose 67% in the past ten years. 93% of primate experiments funded by the NIH are not relevant to major diseases.

Every day, animals are burned, cut, maimed, addicted to drugs, starved, and given fatal diseases, often with no anesthesia. In fact, no federal law regulates what happens to animals during actual experiments. Even food, water, medical care, and infant access to mothers can be denied if it is deemed to be necessary for the experimental conditions. Law enforcement is notoriously lax, and ethical decisions are made by industry insiders, often co- workers and friends of the researchers.

Over 2100 primates are currently enslaved and tortured at any given time in Southborough, MA--many have been the victims of cocaine and heroin studies (forced addiction), and some of these studies have been going on for 40 years! Plus they have endured horrible stress studies, failed xenotransplantation experiments, and a variety of painful invasive procedures. And Harvard will say they are conducting important AIDS research on these animals, but the truth is that not a single positive gain has actually ever happened. Except a lot of animals have died horribly.

Called the New England Primate Research Center (NEPRC), this facility is part of the Harvard Medical School and is one of the 8 Primate Research Centers in the nation. Harvard is the #2 most funded animal research lab in the nation, getting at least $294 million per year! Harvard was very smart to locate NEPRC in Southborough--very little foot and car traffic there--so we will stand up for these animals at the very gates of Harvard U in Cambridge! (For more info, go to the MARC public website: http://www.massanimalrights.org/home and click on Harvard Primate Labs under MARC Campaigns on the left of the homepage.

One of our banners is a quote by Dr. Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist, and reads, "Researchers find it very necessary to keep their blinkers on. They don't want to admit that the animals they are working with have feelings and personalities. That people can go to work and allow such barbaric conditions to continue, is a very black mark against humanity."

But, instead of even scaling back research on nonhuman primates, Harvard's Southborough facility is actually expanding. We know that BU's application to NIAID for the BU Bioterror lab says that BU will pay $3.1 million to the NEPRC to construct a new breeding and holding facility---for primates that will be sickened and killed by the worst pathogens on the planet---anthrax, Ebola, Marburg, plague, SARS.

DIRECTIONS: http://maps.google.com/ or email us at the address above for directions to the protest.

PARKING: There is a parking garage on Holyoke Street less than a block away from the protest but it is not cheap. If you are willing to walk a few blocks, there is street parking but it is not always easy to find. If you are interested in carpooling to share expenses let us know and we will try to get folks together.