Big protest in the Netherlands against Europe's largest primate research centre

Anti Vivisection Coalition wants closure BPRC


By: Paul Kraaijer


Zwolle, 04-10-2008 - The Anti Vivisection Coalition (AVC) has BPRC, "the monkeyhell”, as spearhead in its action program. After the great success of the AVC in Venray, where mostly under pressure from animalrightsactivists protests against the prestigious Science Link-project was stopped, the organization now demands closure of the BPRC. In this primate research centre tests are conducted on 1300 primates (macaques). Recently it became known that mid-2009 the number of monkeys will be expanded by 150 so-called Java monkeys. These monkeys will be moved from the University of Utrecht to the BPRC-complex in Rijswijk.

At this moment there is some uncertainty about the future of the BPRC in Rijswijk. The citycouncil of Rijswijk provided on April 1st this year to the BPRC a buildingpermit for the construction of an new office and a research building. The decision came as a blast for the local Green Party and several local residents. Bert van Velthuijsen of the Green Party said the buildingpermit to be "remarkable". According to the Green Party the BPRC disappears from Rijswijk in 2015. There is housing planned for the land where the BPRC is located. "It can not be that the BPRC plans to build a new research building, while in a few years housing is planned.," says Van Velthuijsen. However according to the AVC the BPRC started already with construction of a new building before the permit was given.


The new buildingplans of the BPRC lead to more actions of animalrightsactivists. The demonstration on Saturday was just a peak in the protestcampaign against the BPRC.

In the center of Rijswijk there first was held a brief manifestation. Several local animallovers from Rijswijk joined the protesters, watched by many policemen. Some speakers set to speak to the demonstrators. Among them was the British animalrights activist John Curtin. In England he fights for over 25 years already against the notorious animallab Huntingdon Life Sciences, where 70,000 animals are used for various tests. Curtin knew how to get the attention of the demonstrators with his speech and was pleased to note that in the Netherlands there are still animalrights actions against the vivisection industry and related businesses.

The demonstration went through part of the center of Rijswijk to the BPRC where Danny Flies of the Belgian branch of the Anti Vivisection Coalition held a fiery speech. He made clear to the demonstrators that behind the fences around the site of the BPRC some 1300 monkeys are used/abused by animalresearchers.

The protest was peaceful and many demonstrators appeared not at all to be the recently in some Dutch media called 'dangerous animalrightsactivists', on the contrary. The only things that the animalrightsactivists want is the immediate closure of the BPRC and a good housing for the remaining monkeys.