The Protestors are probably on the same side as the people within the facility
everybody wants to no longer have to use the animals
Vice News gained rare access to a non for profit science laboratory
which tests some of the world's most deadly infections and diseases on live monkeys
The facility is called the Biomedical Primate Research Center
or BPRC
and they're allowing us to film inside to see with our own eyes
if monkey testing and animal welfare can go hand in hand
Testing on non human primates has left to breakthroughs
such as a polio vaccine and treatments against HIV and AIDS
and the BPRC is the largest facility of its kind in Europe
it's considered to be one the most forward thinking and progressive research centers
for housing and caring for its monkeys
but they are still the focus of animal rights activists
who have continued to protest outside the center
for the last 20 years
They are protesting against what is happening in the facility
No one gets in without noticing that these people are here
We wanted to understand why it is still necessary
to develop life-saving drugs through experiments on live monkeys
and how the animals are being treated
So, where are we?
This is our breeding facility
Over here are 1200 Rhesus macaques
We have around 150 long-tail macaques
and we have 200-250 common macaques
The protesters called this place the monkey hell of Rijswijk
How do you relate to that?
Officially, I do not agree with how they call
Because as of 1996
we started to create these breeding groups
that look much more like how you would find these groups in the wild
young males, about 4-5 years of age
they leave their natal group
before they immigrate into a new group
where there are no relatives to prevent in-breeding
So in this case you take out the young males
and they are either sent to the lab or to another breeding facility?
Yeah, yeah
Out of the 1600 animals in the BPRC
on average, only 10% move into experiments per year
meaning the structure and balance of the groups are left in tact
Do you also see the monkeys that go to the lab and that are being tested on?
Yes, I see those animals too and that's very hard sometimes
But because I know what we are using them for
and I really feel that what we do is the right thing, I can handle that