Culture

So, Why Exactly Were Three Baboons In A Sydney Hospital Anyway?

Apparently the baboons "behaved impeccably".

by Rachael Conaghan  26 February 2020
escaped baboons baboon

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Last night, three baboons became unlikely icons when they escaped a transport vehicle and ran loose in Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

The baboons were captured within an hour, but it left people wondering how on earth a bunch of exotic animals ended up wandering the streets of Sydney’s inner west.

It turns out they are part of a colony in Wallacia, in western Sydney, where the animals are bred for research purposes.

The National Health and Medical Research Council baboon colony is managed by the RPA, and has raised controversy in the past for their work with animals.

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According to Research Data Australia, a government-supported data discovery service, the NHMRC “provides access to large non-human primates to support Australia’s research efforts in diverse scientific areas”.

This includes research into diabetes (like the prevention of kidney damage, nerve damage and eye damage), gene therapy of blood-bone-marrow cancers, vaccine development, and new therapies for transplantation.

While the NHMRC maintains all animal use is approved by an animal welfare committee, in 2016 the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the animal testing industry was “shrouded in secrecy”.

A six-month investigation uncovered evidence of “Frankenstein-like” surgical experiments, including marmosets having electrophysical readings done on their brains before being killed and having their eyes dissected, a kidney transplant between a pig and a baboon, and testing on pregnant primates.

Since the baboons bid for freedom a Change.org petition has sprung up calling for primate experiments to be stopped at Sydney hospitals over animal cruelty concerns.

The escaped primates were a 15-year-old male which was at the hospital for a vasectomy, and two females who were there to keep him company.

The vasectomy was ordered so the male could retire from breeding and live in the colony without affecting genetic diversity.

Baboons can attack if they feel threatened, but the NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard commended them for being “impeccably behaved”, which is lovely I suppose.