Plan for US ‘mini-city’ of 30,000 monkeys for medical research faces backlash

Georgia residents and animal rights activists unhappy at proposal to house long-tailed macaques in sprawling complex

A plan to establish the largest monkey-breeding facility in the US, which would allow 30,000 macaques to roam within outfitted warehouses in Georgia, is facing a furious backlash from animal rights groups and some local residents.

The sprawling, 200-acre complex would house an unusually large number of monkeys, which will then be sent out to universities and pharmaceutical companies for medical research. Over the next 20 years, the facility will assemble a mega-troop of about 30,000 long-tailed macaques, a species native to south-east Asia, in vast barn-like structures in Bainbridge, Georgia, which has a human population of just 14,000.