Controversial monkey study reignites debate over animal testing

Mother monkeys permanently separated from their young sometimes find comfort in stuffed toys: this recent finding from the Harvard experiments has sparked intense controversy among scientists and reignited the ethical debate over animal tests.

The article, titled “Maternal love activators”was written by the neuroscientist Margaret Livingstone and appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in September with little fanfare or media coverage.

But once news of the summary study began to spread on social media, it sparked a firestorm of criticism and eventually a letter to PNAS signed by more than 250 scientists calling for a retraction.

Meanwhile, animal rights groups recalled Livingstone’s earlier work, which included temporarily sewing up the eyelids of baby monkeys to study the impact on their cognition.

“We cannot ask for the consent of the monkeys, but we can stop using, publishing and, in this case, actively promoting cruel methods that knowingly cause extreme distress” in animals, wrote Catherine Hobaiter, a primatologist at the University of St Andrews, who co-authored the retraction letter.

Hobaiter told AFP he was awaiting a response from the magazine before making any further comments, but hoped to hear back soon.

Harvard and Livingstone, for their part, have strongly defended the research.

Livingstone’s observations “They can help scientists understand the maternal bond in humans and can inform comforting interventions to help women cope with loss immediately after suffering a miscarriage or experiencing stillbirth,” Harvard Medical School detailed in a statement.

Livingstone, in a separate statement, argued: “I have joined the ranks of scientists attacked and demonized by opponents of animal research, who seek to abolish life-saving research on all animals”.

Such work routinely draws the ire of groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)which opposes all forms of animal testing.

That controversy provoked strong responses in the scientific community, particularly from animal behavioral researchers and primatologists, said Alan McElligot of the Center for Animal Health at the City University of Hong Kong and one of the signatories of the PNAS letter.

He told AFP that Livingstone appears to have replicated research done by Harry Harlow, a famous mid-20th-century American psychologist.

Harlow’s experiments on maternal deprivation in rhesus macaques were considered groundbreaking, but they must also have helped catalyze the first animal liberation movement.