A baboon who was scheduled to undergo a vasectomy operation recently made a daring escape, and he took two female monkeys on the run with him, the Independent reported.
On February 25, concerned residents in Sydney, Australia, contacted emergency services after the trio of primates were spotted running around the grounds of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
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Apparently, the baboons had been traveling in a truck on their way to a medical facility when they managed to escape.
The 15-year-old male baboon was due to have a vasectomy, and was accompanied by two female baboons — his “wives”, who were apparently brought along to keep the male calm during transportation and the procedure.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard explained that a lock failure, either on the truck or in the baboons’ crate, had allowed for their great escape.
Of course, once word got out about the baboons on the loose, people just couldn’t help but crack some harmless jokes.
NSW police posted the above cheeky tweet in regards to the baboons, and hundreds of others like it followed.
“The baboons are simply trying to make it to Mardi Gras,” this user wrote. “Let them.”
Another added, “As an expert on animal behaviour I can confirm that the ideal number of free roaming baboons is zero.”
Although they had earned their freedom, the baboons didn’t exactly know what to do with it.
“The three baboons decided to take a bit of a look around RPA grounds,” Hazzard said. “They didn’t know what to do nor did the people around them.”
The bizarre incident finally came to an end at around 5:30 PM that evening when police responded to the sightings and were able to recapture the animals.
“They are currently contained and police are working with experts to safely return them to their facility,” a NSWPF spokesperson told The Guardian .
So where exactly did these three baboons come from in the first place?
These particular primates are part of the national baboon colony at a Wallacia facility, which supplies the baboons for scientific testing.
“The research includes reproductive issues, kidney disease, gestational diabetes — a whole range of research areas and with the conclusion of the research they return to the colony in Western Sydney and they usually just live their lives out until old age,” Hazzard explained, adding “I understand they’re extremely well cared for.”
The escape has sparked calls for transparency in animal medical research, with many activists voicing concern for the recaptured baboons.
Emma Hurst, an Animal Justice Party MP from NSW, told The Guardian that these primates “may have undergone multiple experiments and been involved in multiple protocols.”
She added that she hopes the baboon’s escape puts a spotlight on the lack of transparency around animal medical research in Australia.
“It’s possibly the least transparent animal-use industry that we have,” she said.
According to Humane Research Australia, 272 primates were used for medical research in Australia in 2017.
Chief executive Helen Marston said the Wallacia facility, where these baboons are kept, is “extremely secretive”, and despite claims that the animals are kept in so-called “world-class” facilities, the group has reason to believe this isn’t the case.
“We keep finding these incidents that clearly show it’s not world class at all, not when you find primates died unexpectedly overnight from causes that they weren’t aware of,” she told The Sydney Morning Herald . “They’re clearly not being kept well.”
However, Dr. Malcolm France, a private consultant on laboratory animal care and management, disputed these claims and said they’re “unfair to an awful lot of people”.
As he explained , all facilities have to go through a rigorous process in order to use animals in their studies.
“Put simply, there are some questions that even with the most sophisticated alternatives can’t be answered unless you use the whole animal,” he said.
He added that these research projects have to be approved first by a panel of experts that include a member of an animal welfare group and a veterinarian.
