Animals in Labs Article from All-Creatures.org

Remembering Britches on World Day for Laboratory Animals

From LCA Last Chance for Animals
April 2023

Britches was a macaque, approximately one month old at the time of the raid, who was born into a breeding colony at UCR. As part of a research experiment, Britches was removed from his mother at birth, had his eyelids sewn shut, and had an electronic sonar device attached to his head. The device emitted a high-pitched noise every few minutes.

Today, we are remembering Britches, removed from the University of California, Riverside (UCR) in 1985 after a raid took place by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). LCA's Chris DeRose was the spokesperson for ALF in the 1980's.

Britches was a macaque, approximately one month old at the time of the raid, who was born into a breeding colony at UCR. As part of a research experiment, Britches was removed from his mother at birth, had his eyelids sewn shut, and had an electronic sonar device attached to his head. The device emitted a high-pitched noise every few minutes.

After the raid, Britches was flown to a sanctuary in Texas, where he was "adopted" by an elderly female macaque who had already raised several orphans. Britches lived to be 20 years old.

As a result of the publicity from the ALF raid, eight of the 17 studies interrupted by the raid were not restarted, and the University stopped allowing infant monkeys' eyes to be sewn shut, according to reports filed by the University with the government.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) conducted an eight-month investigation into UCR's research laboratory animal care program and concluded it was an "appropriate" program, and that no corrective action was necessary.

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