Dear supporters: This update is a bit long so please bear with me. First, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to each and every one of the half million compassionate people who have added their voice in support of the baby monkeys. I would also like to thank United States Senator Mark Warner (D-Va) for facilitating communication with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in my challenge of the agency’s decision to fund this horrendous and pointless experimentation. In October I received written confirmation from NIH that the university had indeed modified their cruel study design so that the baby monkeys were no longer being torn from their mothers at birth. According to the lead investigator, the change was made after initial data showed that the separation was not necessary in order to induce extreme anxiety in the baby monkeys. Apparently, this fearful extreme temperament was occurring naturally in monkeys bred and born at the Univ of Wisconsin’s primate facility regardless. And contrary to logic, the baby monkeys who were removed from their mothers at birth ultimately fared better in the University’s stressful laboratory setting than those who remained! This result is absurd and supports my claim that the study design was then and continues to be flawed however modified. It is a waste of our tax dollars. Unfortunately, the baby monkeys will still be terrorized and meet a certain death by age one for no good cause. However, the intense public scrutiny and pressure exerted by you to stop these horrific experiments IS changing things overall. As many of you may have heard, similarly inhumane research involving baby monkeys previously conducted at NIH’s Maryland laboratory is being permanently shut down on the heels of significant public backlash. You can read more of the story at http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nih-stops-baby-monkey-experiments/. So we must be vigilant. I recently uncovered yet another disturbing study being proposed at the Univ of Wisconsin. In this experiment, the brains of young anxious monkeys will be probed and injected with chemicals known to disrupt specific areas of the brain nerve circuitry ostensibly linked to anxiety and depression. This manipulation will allow certain behaviors to be switched on and off in the monkeys at the whim of the experimenter essentially turning them into mere puppets. This new scientific ‘toy’ has the potential to abuse thousands of primates for many years to come if not challenged by the public. Clearly, the Univ of Wisconsin has a very low threshold of what it deems humane. This conga line of hideous experiments which are unjustified is routine at this and other primate research laboratories nationwide. Therefore, going forward, our campaign will employ a much broader strategy which I will announce after the New Year. Meanwhile, the Univ of Wisconsin continues to stonewall attempts by the Animal Legal Defense Fund to retrieve further information regarding the approval of the controversial baby monkey experimentation. For a complete update on this lawsuit see http://aldf.org/blog/uw-madison-evasion-hides-public-records-and-details-of-infant-monkey-experiments/ I thank you again for your overwhelming response and tenacity.