Primate Products CEO Paul Houghton and President Donald Bradford are headed to Austin, Texas later this week for the annual meeting of the American Society of Primatologists. The ASP is a strange organization made up of primatologists working to protect wild populations of primates, along with researchers who have no problem torturing primates held captive in labs.

On one day during the conference, you could attend a session about how mining in Senegal is disturbing wild chimpanzees, learn about left-hand preference among siamangs in Indonesia, or about the diets of wild vervet monkeys in South Africa. But walk into a different room and you’ll find researchers from Charles River Laboratories talking about how they “desensitize” primates newly arrived from China, or you could listen to researchers describe self-biting and other “abnormal behaviors” of rhesus monkeys in laboratory cages, or, if you can stomach it, attend a session about the effects of consecutive, 4-day-long forced separations between captive female rhesus macaques and their infants (not surprisingly, the monkeys showed an increase in “distress vocalizations”).

On Monday morning (September 19), Paul Houghton, Don Bradford and Primate Products “Behaviorist” Stefanie Nelsen will present a session about training captive crab-eating macaques. They will be competing for audience members with a session presented at the same time by Tina Koban, a researcher at the infamous Huntingdon Life Sciences!

We’ve been in touch with activists in Texas about the many social events taking place during the conference– the opening reception, film screening, fun run, etc.– but if you can’t make it to Austin this weekend, please contact the Hilton Austin and express your disgust that the hotel has chosen to support animal cruelty by hosting Paul Houghton, Don Bradford and their ilk from the vivisection community.

Leslie Pchola, General Manager
Hilton Austin
500 East 4th Street
Austin, TX 78701
Phone: (512) 682-2773 or (512) 482-8000
E-mail: leslie.a.pchola@hilton.com

— sample letter–

Dear Ms. Pchola,

I am disappointed to learn that Paul Houghton and Don Bradford from Primate Products, Inc. will be staying at your hotel this weekend during the American Society of Primatologists annual meeting. Primate Products, Inc., a Florida-based company, has a record of shoddy animal care and reckless decisions that have led to animal suffering. There have been a number of serious incidents that suggest troubling problems at Primate Products. Please visit http://smashhls.blogspot.com/2010/08/shocking-photos-expose-suffering-of.html to learn more about this disgusting company.

Are you sure you want these animal abusers sleeping in your beds?