Every year in Europe, up to 10,000 non-human primates (monkeys) suffer and die in laboratory experiments. They are mainly used in the 'safety' testing of pharmaceuticals and other chemicals, in the production and quality control of vaccines (including neurovirulence testing of polio vaccines), testing of dental materials and in fundamental biomedical research.

In 1999 (the most recent EU statistics available) the UK and France were the major users of laboratory monkeys (35% and 25% of total EU monkey experiments respectively). Germany reported an increase of 21%, becoming the third major EU user of lab monkeys (23% of EU total).

For five months, a BUAV operative called 'Marcus' worked undercover as an animal technician at Covance, Münster, in Germany. This laboratory tests almost exclusively on non-human primates. It houses up to 2,000 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), cynomologus or long-tailed macaques (Macaca fasicularis) and common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) for toxicity testing.

This Covance facility is likely to be one of the largest users of non-human primates for vivisection in the whole of Europe. Working mainly with the cynomolgus macaques (imported from Mauritius, China & Vietnam), Marcus witnessed the daily suffering of monkeys (including heavily pregnant females) subjected to the abhorrent routine of pharmaceutical toxicity testing.

It was to be a gruelling challenge, submerged in a world where the animals were treated with callous indifference, tormented by the staff, separated from each other, isolated in barren cages, regularly and forcibly pumped full of drugs and eventually killed.

Covance Germany is part of Covance's massive global operations. With facilities in 18 countries including the UK (Harrogate), it has more than 6,900 employees worldwide and claims to be "the global leader in safety assessment testing" and "one of the world's largest and most comprehensive drug development service companies". Its 2002 revenues stand at $883 million and its customers include the top 50 global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the world.

Globally Covance offers just about every conceivable method of animal poisoning available. Its list of 'services' makes sickening reading, including acute, subchronic & chronic toxicity, reproductive toxicology, neurotoxicity, as well as what are called 'speciality services' such as inhalation toxicology, primate toxicology, continuous infusion studies and ocular toxicity studies.

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