A tiny Georgia town is in uproar amid plans for a huge $400million breeding farm for 30,000 monkeys who will be sold off for animal testing.
Safer Human Medicine sparked fury in Bainbridge, in the south west of the state, by proposing the sprawling site for the long-tailed macaques.
It filed plans earlier this month to erect huge sheds across a 200-acre estate near the town of 14,000 people, which will hold the doomed primates.
But it has been met with fierce resistance, with locals claiming it will smell and depreciate the value of their homes.
Others raised fears the monkeys could escape during a hurricane or tornado while animal rights activists attacked the firm for selling them for animal testing.
Environmental impact is also a concern with locals cherishing the Flint River, which flows into Lake Seminole and whose waters reach the Gulf of Mexico.
Safer Human Medicine is led by executives who formerly worked for two other companies that provide animals for medical testing.
One of those companies, Charles River Laboratories, came under investigation last year for obtaining wild monkeys that were smuggled from Cambodia.
The monkeys were falsely labeled as bred in captivity, as is required by U.S. rules, federal prosecutors have alleged. The company suspended the shipments from Cambodia.
Charles River had proposed a similar facility in Brazoria County, Texas, south of Houston, but it has been stalled by local opposition.
The Bainbridge facility would provide a domestic source of monkeys to offset imports, the company said.
Hellbound and Down 