UnchainedTV: Stop The Monkey Business!

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0:47 For more information on Unchained TV productions, just visit UnchainedTV.com. That's UnchainedTV.com. And we have got breaking news for you. We can tell you that outraged citizens, frightened citizens in Georgia have united to stop a plan that would put America's largest laboratory monkey breeding facility in the small town of Bainbridge, Georgia, 233 miles south of Atlanta. The residents have filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop this highly controversial plan to put 30,000 monkeys, twice the human population of the town, in their village.

1:33 PETA is on the ground supporting the residents. They argue the plan should be invalidated because local officials approved the proposal during an illegally assembled meeting violating violating Georgia's Open Meetings Act. Basically, these citizens, and you're going to hear from one in a second, say this was being done behind their backs, and they are furious over the impact of caged monkeys on their property values, their safety, and so much more. So I want to go straight out to Christina Martin. Christina, you are one of the leaders in the fight to stop this.

2:16 Why did you decide to get involved? Well, I really did feel like I had a choice. I mean, I moved back to my hometown to build a family, you know, be with my family, my elderly grandparents that are no longer with us, but to just, you know, start my life as an adult. And, you know, I've been here for four and a half years, and this is just, this is not at all anything I ever would have expected to happen. I mean, we've done so much in our downtown development, you know, bringing industry, good industry, to the county, and just building downtown, and this is just kind of a kick in the head.

3:10 You know, I mean, our local officials have basically just put a huge dark cloud over everything that everyone in the town has worked so hard to build. What they're planning here in Bainbridge is absolutely unprecedented in this country. They're planning to ultimately confine 30,000 monkeys on any given day and would be generating more than 400,000 gallons of wastewater a day. These are all monkeys who would be into the pipeline to be into laboratories across the country where they'll be force-fed chemicals, addicted to drugs like cocaine.

3:51 They'll have their skulls drilled into their skulls, and ultimately they'd all be killed. And it's no wonder that the citizens of Bainbridge want nothing to do with this, and it's clear that what the company is trying to do in Bainbridge is not try to improve human health or bring quality jobs to Bainbridge. All they care about is making as much money as they can while exploiting an endangered species of monkeys. So that's why Pete is joining with the citizens of Bainbridge to fight this facility so that we do not create just this enormous factory farm of monkeys right here in the U.S. that are all destined for these invasive, traumatic, and deadly experiments.

4:34 Now this has been getting a lot of coverage, and that's great because sometimes animal rights issues do not get coverage. And that's one of the reasons we started Unchained TV, because it's outrageous that things happen that affect people and animals and the mainstream media ignores it. But they are not ignoring this issue. So I want to play just one of the local news reports, and then we're discuss on the other side. The courtroom was full of residents wearing t -shirts that read, Stop the Monkey Farm, during a hearing on Safer Human Medicine's motion to join in on this civil case. Residents are suing the city of Bainbridge, Decatur County, the Decatur County Board of Education, and the Board of Assessors for planning to build a monkey facility.

5:18 According to the lawsuit, the government officials voted to approve the facility while violating part of Georgia's Open Meetings Act. During the hearing Tuesday morning, both parties shared their arguments. The attorney representing Bainbridge residents, Rebecca Davis, shared why the court should not grant the motion to intervene. I do not believe that the court should grant the motion to intervene. So bring us up to date, Amy. Where exactly is this case? It's something obviously that the residents of Bainbridge do not want. They packed hearings about this saying it was done behind their backs. Where does it stand now?

6:00 So yes, so this lawsuit was filed by a group of Bainbridge citizens, and it's filed against the city and other agencies because they failed to do, as you mentioned, what's required of them by the Georgia Open Meetings Act when they voted to approve this disastrous plan. And right now, the most recent thing that happened a couple weeks ago was a hearing in the case because the company is trying to wiggle its way and intervene in the case and try to be relevant in the case when really it's about the citizens and the city and these agencies' role in not representing their true interests. And all they did was roll out the red carpet for this company.

6:43 And what the citizens are demanding is saying, your words are not enough. We need to see action. We need our elected officials to admit their mistakes and take action to undo them. So while this is in the courts, meanwhile, the company hasn't been able to build any of this facility, and we are just optimistic that they're going to see that this is not forward thinking. This is not in the best interest of anyone, and they need to abandon this plan and invest in real meaningful science that's not using animal models. Well, let me ask you, Christina, you sent me this photo of people lined up outside one of the hearings on this issue, and it's not just a couple of people.

7:31 It's a lot of people who packed these hearings. What is the general reaction in the town of Bainbridge, which again is about 230 miles south of Atlanta, a close-knit community, and all of a sudden this was presented to them as a fait accompli. How has the town itself reacted? Oh, you're muted. Sorry. First of all, let me just say not only are we just a little bit south of Atlanta, we're only about 38 miles north of Tallahassee, and our Flint River, which is another one of our attractions, flows straight into the Gulf.

8:21 So this is not only a fight for the town, our river, the beautification, wildlife. This also affects the panhandle of the Gulf Coast. So I just want to throw that out because that's a huge factor in all of this as well. But the photos that you shared- Because you're talking about pollution. You're talking about pollution. Tell me about that. Well, I mean, Amy can give you more specifics on the scientific part, I guess, but based on research, we're looking at over 400 ,000 gallons of waste to come from this facility.

9:02 And I mean, based on the individuals that started Safer Human Medicine, I don't foresee them following protocol to transport waste. And our river is literally, you might as well say across the street, you know, from the rivers across the street from where they want to build the facility. So I mean, that, you know, it's just, it's not rocket science to come to that conclusion. But Jane, I wanted to say those photos that you saw, the one of the citizens outside, you can't really see all of the people.

9:45 That's outside of our local county commissioner's building. That was a county commission meeting, one of the first ones. And you cannot tell, the people were around the corner. We had to close off because the lobby was full, the building was full. People just stood outside and people were like passing the word from the lobby outside to people and kind of, you know, going down the line to inform people. That was just one of the county commission meetings. The other photo, that one, yes, that was one of the very first city council meetings. And again, this room is on the second floor.

10:26 So outside of there, the lobby area was full, down the stairs, outside. I mean, the meetings have been so full, people can't get in. They're outraged. People are outraged. You know, if this is a farming community, you know, people are really concerned about their livelihoods, their property values. You know, I mean, you know, in my bio, it says that we have family land of over 100 years. And there's people that have land in their family longer. And, you know, they've farmed for decades and decades.

11:07 You know, their corporate contracts are not going to continue if there's a risk of disease affecting the crop. All right. Let me say that we have a whole bunch of callers lining up. This has hit a nerve. We're going to run through them. Sarah in Lufkin, Texas, your question or thought? Sarah, I hear. Yes. Oh, sorry about that. Yes. My question is, I hear a lot of talk about the residents being really concerned and outraged about this big, massive monkey facility, because it's going to affect their health, it's going to affect their property value.

11:55 But is there anything being done to educate the residents about why they should be mad, like about the animal welfare aspect? Like, are they being taught about the industry and how they can fight against it by buying cruelty-free products? You know, that kind of education. Well, let's go to Amy Meyer, because PETA is on the ground there helping out. Yes. So myself and one of my colleagues have been to Bainbridge several times. We've been meeting with residents there constantly. And these are smart, compassionate people. They understand the ethical issue, too.

12:38 I've never met so many people who learned so quickly what is at stake here for the animals themselves. They absolutely care deeply about the animals themselves. And when they watched the footage of what happened at InVigo's beagle breeding facility, when one of these men trying to start the monkey factory farm was there, they have been appalled. And they have no trust that he's going to do any better with many more times monkeys in their town. They're absolutely concerned about the animals themselves. But it's also, you know, a more direct impact to them than it is to other people who care about the animals as well, because it is impacting them directly if this comes to their community.

13:24 But they absolutely have learned so much, are so well educated on the topic and on the ethical issue, and have really become amazing advocates for these monkeys trapped in laboratories across the country. And before we go to the next caller, I want to point out that we have a GoFundMe. We've posted it in the comments section. If you're watching now, you could hopefully copy it or just copy and paste it off of Facebook. We're on all platforms. So please help them donate, because PETA's fighting it, but they also have a local GoFundMe. All right, next caller, Tiffany in Los Angeles, your question or thought for our panel on stop monkey breeding in Georgia.

14:10 Yes, good afternoon, Jane. And thank you, PETA and all who are taking this on. And I know I was reading something too, that one of the CEOs or something was related to the Beagle facility that was shut down, and that he's faced a lot of legal problems. But I wanted to ask, what, how, how did you discover this, that this was going on in the dark? Because I'm just thinking they could be planning this in any of our cities, and we may find out too late. How, how are you able to find out what was going on? Great question. Who wants to take it?

14:50 Amy, go. Oh, sure. And Christina, please chime in. If you want to add, PETA actually was alerted by some of the local residents who discovered this was happening. And unfortunately, by the time we learned the city had already started steam rolling. So it really is hard to know. And they intentionally make it hard to know. When they were presenting this to the city, they called this monkey factory farm operation Project Liberty. That sounds like a wonderful thing. If you just see on paper, they're gonna that the city is going to see something about a Project Liberty doesn't sound bad. But of course, it is. And so, you know, I definitely recommend that people pay attention to what's happening in their own communities, especially this region of the country where we've seen some other companies trying to set up similar monkey factory farms in Texas.

15:45 We've stopped them in Florida already to keep an eye on it. And one thing PETA is doing to try to stay ahead of it before any cities make promises that they shouldn't be keeping and that their citizens don't want is doing public records requests to agencies in the states. And this is something that citizens can do to send a public records request to your city officials asking if they have any documents related to monkey farms, or, you know, any kind of non human primate operation coming to town, really just to try to be in the know about it. But PETA is really doing everything we can to learn about any other thing, setting up and always encourage people to contact us if you're hearing anything on the ground, because you're the animal's best advocates for in your community, you know the most about your community.

16:34 Our next caller, we've got Lindsay and Tarzana, your question or thought for our panel. Yeah, I mean, I'm just listening and getting angrier and angrier. I think this has such far reaching effect. I realise how the community how much it impacts on the community, but you were talking about the farmers and the farmers grow our food. So this is all this poison and all of this horrific insanity, this insane torture. We know that from studies that it does not work on humans, that in the human model, many of the drugs fail. That's a path in the animal model.

17:16 We know all of this. Why is this still going on? And how could these officials, how could these officials see a line of people around the block and still question they have any right to put that there or give permission to put that there? You know, great point. Christina, what is the reaction of these people who made this happen or trying to make this happen? They are local residents. They didn't fly in from, you know, Mars. They live there. What kind of blowback are they getting? Well, our county commissioners have basically recent and they've done a little bit more research and they're regretful for their decision.

18:02 As far as our mayor, city council, nothing. Absolutely nothing. As far as I know from communication with PETA between city council, mayor, I don't think there's been a whole lot. I don't think that, I know that the local media has not had any response from our local officials. It's pretty incredible. The board of education has not really responded. The development authority, the ones that brought this to the table have somewhat resent but not really because behind the scenes they continue to tell people on the street it's a done deal.

18:54 It's still a go. You know, there's that PETA is blowing everything out of proportion. I mean, we have that. We have a clip of one of the members from the development authority saying that it's all PETA's fault. PETA's blowing everything out of proportion and they pay universities to do this and that, to write articles, just to hype everybody up and put fear into the community. We're not idiots. We're not idiots and we're all doing our own research. You know, it's like Amy said, the people here are concerned about the animals welfare as well. They've done so much research on their own and I mean, it's pretty incredible to see all likes of people come together and do their own research and really work hard.

19:48 I mean, we've been doing this since January the 16th. We have been boots on the ground, doing everything that we can, but the collar, that last collar, the crops, that is something that really needs to be addressed because you have to think about it. We grow a lot of cotton. We grow a lot of corn. We grow a lot of peanuts. I mean, there are a lot of crops that come from this region and there's, and these farms surround the proposed monkey facility. Okay. I'm going to jump in because we have so many callers.

20:29 This has hit a nerve. We got four now. Nilofar in Dallas, Texas, your question or thought? Hi, it sounds like you have a very strong case. So what's the likelihood of winning it? What is the approximate timeline for winning it and what can we do outside of the Bain County to assist? All right, Amy. So one thing that everyone can easily do is go to peta.org forward slash Bainbridge. That's B-A-I-N B-R-I -D-G-E.

21:12 And there you can read more about this and you can quickly with the click of a button email the city officials in Bainbridge to echo the concerns of the residents there and urge them to stop this disastrous plan. And in terms of the lawsuit, I wish I was a lawyer and understood how all these timelines work. It's my understanding that this could take a while, but like I said, in the meantime, the companies had to have been put on hold for now. And so, you know, the longer it takes while it's on hold, hopefully they'll be sitting with it and feeling that this is a bad investment. It's not worth doing. A lot of the companies, biggest companies in the U.S. that experiment on monkeys have been reducing the number of monkeys in the last year that they're experimenting on.

22:00 And these monkeys that they're talking about bringing to Bainbridge are an endangered species of monkeys now. The IUCN has listed them as endangered just in 2022. It's a terrible idea. It's only getting worse. And so hopefully they'll just shut down this plan altogether before it gets started. All right. In Dallas, Texas, your question or thought for our panel, stop the monkey business in Georgia. I'm just so impressed and proud of this community coming together and standing up against a corporation that puts profits before people. Congratulations. I'm so proud. I wish you all the best.

22:40 What advice, what other additional advice would you give other citizens in other cities to organise and, you know, work together to, you know, fight off, you know, you know, interests that don't have our interests. How can we organise and be successful like you? Well, I want to jump in and answer that question with an observation. It was many years ago. I happen to be in Puerto Rico for a Hispanic journalist conference when two people came up to me very agitated. They said, we're from the Puerto Rican Bar Association Animal Rights Subcommittee and there is a laboratory monkey breeding facility that they've already built in a little town called Guayama in Puerto Rico.

23:30 And they broke all the rules and they built it. And we don't think we can stop it. And I remember saying, don't say you can't stop it until you've tried. And PETA got involved and fought this all the way up to the Puerto Rican Supreme Court. And the Puerto Rican Supreme Court ruled that the company violated all sorts of regulations and it never got to open. It's, you know, the same industry that's now trying to open in Georgia. And it was stopped in Puerto Rico. And Amy, you've talked about, it seems like they're always trying to open it somewhere. Somewhere. Yeah. And I just want to, you know, I echo just my, I've just been so inspired by the people in Bainbridge who have been coming together, different walks of life, people who never in a million years thought that they would become friends with a PETA staff member who I would consider my friends now.

24:26 I not only want to stop this facility because I care so deeply about the monkeys it impacts. I care about my friends in Bainbridge too, who are desperately trying not to get it built. And they are putting aside other differences and all coming together. And it's so inspiring. And I hope that people can learn from that in their own communities to really come together, to work together on a focused thing to stop it. There's lots of ways you can take action to be pushing your members of Congress and other people to take action faster. All right. We've got Caitlin in Austin, Texas, your question or thought for the No Monkey Business in Georgia panel. Yeah, I just wanted to first say like, I appreciate y'all doing all this work.

25:08 It's really important. I also wanted to touch on the fact of like, NIH has come out and said anywhere between 89 and 95% of these trials that are tested on animals don't actually work for human clinical trials. And so I'm wondering, y'all have anyone that is speaking about there that can outreach to the public or talk to the people involved in trying to get this passed there to educate them on their experience with animal testing and how it's no longer conducive to progress? I mean, we all know this. And, you know, the problem is covered this for many years, and I'm just updating.

25:50 So people want to take action and we're getting all these, how do we help? How do we help? Well, you just go to PETA.org forward slash Bainbridge. And hopefully somebody who's watching will also post the GoFundMe, the local GoFundMe, copy this and get it on Facebook so that those who want to support that can also go there. They need funds there, and they haven't gotten funds for the last couple of months. So we need funds going in there. And I never ask anybody to do something that I don't do. So as soon as I'm off this broadcast, I will be donating. I urge you also to donate to this GoFundMe page so that the citizens on the ground have some support there for the buttons and all the things that they're printing up.

26:37 And I'm sure PETA helps them as well. So, you know, the truth is that our government is what's keeping this going because they're funding a lot of these experiments with your tax dollars, knowing full well they don't work. And PETA has uncovered horror story after horror story, way back from the Silver Springs case, which was a national shame, all the way to things they're finding today with people doing just bizarre and stupid experiments, scaring monkeys, ripping them away from their mothers and scaring them. And it's just, it's mediaeval, it's barbaric.

27:19 And everybody knows that we're in the 21st century. We have organs on a chip. We have so many other ways. And they're using literally like 19th century or earlier techniques. And it's all because it's a big business. The universities get a cut, so they want to keep doing it. The people who are in charge of the National Institutes of Health, for the most part, are vivid sectors themselves. I mean, stop me, Amy, when I'm going off the chart. Yeah, no, you have it absolutely right, Jane. And that's what makes it so hard is the people who are making the decisions about what, where the money should go, for themselves, these, primate or other animal experimenters.

28:04 And so we're seeing change, it's coming slowly, but it's happening. You know, the number of primates imported into the US last year fell dramatically, which is so critical, because the primate experimentation industry has literally been driving these long-tailed macaques toward extinction. That's part of why they are now endangered is because the US has been pulling about 30,000 of them every year, for years out of Asia and Africa. So that's something we can be hopeful about. The number dropped drastically last year. We need to keep the monkeys where they belong with their families in the forest, and out of laboratory cages.

28:45 And the change is happening. It's slower than we all want. And we all need to be working together to make it faster. All right, Maggie in Sacramento, your question or thought for our fantastic Stop the Monkey Business in Georgia panel. Hello, hello. Thank you so much for what you're doing. First of all, I feel so connected with what you are doing, because actually here in Sacramento, we do the same. We have UC Davis, they test on monkeys, they have 5,000 monkeys here. So we try to organise process here at Davis and in Sacramento. But my question is, how can I physically help you? What I mean, like, I'm willing to travel and stay a week over there and help you process and walking from door to door and giving people slides, informing them what's happening.

29:35 How can we do it physically? Is there any information that we can get how to join you and how to, help you basically processing it? Wow, what an incredible offer, Christina. If you could, Jane's already posted the GoFundMe account. Honestly, that's the biggest help at this point right now. We have so many lawsuits. Things are not on hold, so to speak. We are doing protests. We're attending every city council meeting, every board of education meeting, every development authority meeting, every county commission, every local meeting we're attending.

30:18 We've got set groups that attend each meeting. And then we also have our protest groups that rotate. We have our weekly prayer get together at the downtown square so that it's visible, because City Hall, of course, is right downtown. I mean, we're on the ground, but honestly, because so many people think that there's nothing that we're done, that it's done, that it's a done deal. And we're constantly, constantly working every single day, and it's not a done deal. So that's why funds right now, the GoFundMe, that is the biggest help.

31:06 Yeah, we're going to put that up again. I have a question. So you said that some of the local officials are like, you know, they're just kind of forging ahead, but aren't they elected? I mean, if the town is so outraged, which you've offered plenty of evidence, a lawsuit, giant groups of people showing up to say, why are you doing this? When's the next election, I guess, is my question. I don't have that in front of me, but I believe 20. Oh, you're breaking up just a tad. Maybe you could handle that one.

31:47 Well, yeah. Amy. Yeah, that's something that the locals are paying attention to. We've even seen some locals running for some offices on a platform opposing the monkey farm. So there's a lot of that type of activism happening there locally. And it's really powerful. It's a small community. It doesn't take switching that many voters to this issue. And there's a lot of people who are very impassioned about this issue. So I'm sure that's something that they'll be working on in the future election cycles. But what I don't understand is, and you're, you are breaking up a little bit, I would suggest turn off any phones you have so you can get a better signal.

32:32 But let me ask you this, Amy. I mean, look, what is, what would the motivation if you're a public official, and people are literally so outraged that they're filing lawsuits and they're jamming into these hearings? What would your motivation be to have a stance that is completely in defiance of what these people want? I don't really get that. Maybe you could talk a little bit about the money issues that are here. What are the money issues, Amy? Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head there, Jane.

33:13 It always boils down to the money, right? And what the company had got from the city and county was a bond worth $300 million with an additional $60 million in incentives. And the company is promising that it's going to build the local economy. They're going to create all these great paying jobs. Look at how much money we can sell these monkeys to laboratories for. It's going to be a boom to the local economy. And that's what the city's banking on. Like most small cities in America, they're looking at what kind of industry they can be bringing that is going to last and be a boom to the local economy.

33:54 But what PETA and the locals have been trying to tell them is even if that's all they care about, it's a losing bet. This is an industry that is on its way out, not ramping up. And so it's not even a good bet. And frankly, it would be hard to even fill these jobs. We've seen private laboratories across the country struggling to fill basic needs like the veterinary positions because they're just not jobs anyone wants to do. No one wants to have to sit and watch these monkeys being tormented in these kinds of places where they're kept in such unnatural settings that they literally spin around endlessly in their cages. They do backflips. Sometimes they're even biting off their own fingers and toes.

34:37 They're driven absolutely mad when they are confined in such small spaces that this is not an industry any compassionate person wants to be involved with. So that's what we're trying to convince these city officials of still. Well, I would like to tell you, and I think we've got you back, Christina, that I was involved in another battle to stop another similar laboratory monkey breeding facility, this one in Hendry County, Florida. And I got a call because, believe it or not, my first job out of college was in Fort Myers, Florida, and I had kept some connections there. And I got a call from a senior citizen, wonderful animal rescuer, and she told me that they were trying to build another one of these giant laboratory monkey breeding facilities in Hendry County, which is just north of Fort Myers.

35:28 So we went there and it was a very similar situation where the local government, there was this person who had come in and they were sort of like economic development people, right? Now, again, it seemed like it was something that couldn't be stopped, but it did get stopped. Not to say that there isn't another facility there now, but that was pre-existing, but they wanted to really, really expand it massively. And what happened was there was this meeting of all the economic development councils in Florida, and they were all supposed to do their presentations. And we all went, we bought a table and we went.

36:08 And we sat there and there was this one young woman who didn't want to go. She said, I'm not into protesting at all. And we said, well, you know, if you want to come, come. If you don't, don't. And we're all just sitting there. And the Hendry County guy got up and did his whole presentation, never mentioning the laboratory monkey breeding facility plan. That somehow outraged the woman who was reluctant at first. She rushed up to the front of the stage, jumped on the stage and said, these people are hiding what they're trying to do. Words to that effect, all hell broke loose. There were congressmen in the audience. It became just a wild scene.

36:50 Reporters were coming up and asking me for my video because I ran up and did a phone video and it killed it. It killed it because it was a shameful experience at this highly prestigious conference. We hadn't even been planning to protest. We were just there to see what was going on. But this woman got so upset. She literally jumped up on the stage. And you know what? God bless her. Because that one action did more to galvanise or to show the powers that be that people were really upset. So I always say never. And the guy cleared out.

37:31 We went to try to contact him in Hendry County. We couldn't even find him. Literally, he had cleaned out his house and we drove up and it was empty. So I bring you that story because I say never give up. There will be a point where it will become politically untenable for this to move forward. Now that we've got you back, what are your thoughts on that, Christina? We're not. And thank God for PETA. It would not be where we are right now if it had not been for PETA. And we're not giving up. Sometimes you wake up and you feel like you're beating your head against the wall. Sometimes we are beating our head against the wall.

38:13 But we're not going to stop. And regardless of the few local officials that continue to say that they're not going to stop and that this will continue, we're not going to allow it. We're just going to keep fighting. We're going to keep doing what we have to do and we're not going to let it happen. I there's too much farmland, the Gulf Coast. There's too much at stake and we're not going to happen. I have to say, and being from a small town, it makes sense to me, but I'm sure others from larger cities, it might not.

38:55 But the attitude, the audacity of our city officials that there's no heart. I mean, it's almost like it's money. It's only money to them. And I don't know. I just, I can't grasp that. And that's why we've all just, you know, we've got our boots on and our gloves and we're not going to stop. And you can see the GoFundMe right here. Sorry, it's such a long URL, but if you can copy it, do a screen grab and then copy it down.

39:42 We really are urging people, those here today, to help this local group fight this monkey breeding facility. And so that's another thing. So I want to recap and review. Has the judge made the decision as to whether the company involved can be part of the lawsuit? What's happening with that? Uh, yeah, Amy. No, the judge has not issued a decision on that part of this case yet. So it could still take a few more weeks for the judge to decide if they'll let the company be involved in the lawsuit.

40:23 And then, of course, it will be even longer for the entire lawsuit to wrap up. So that will be the next step, though, is the judge deciding if the company gets to intervene in the case. All right. And we've got a report here from a local news reporter that actually shows really how huge this facility would be. It hasn't been built, but you'll see. AJ Douglas live at the Decatur County Superior Courthouse. I'm tracking a major legal battle as economic development continues to keep this community on edge. Passing by court in Decatur County Tuesday morning. You may have seen a colourful display like this one.

41:05 Neighbours in my community continue standing against a proposed primate breeding facility. The economic development project drove a small group of neighbours to file a lawsuit against leaders in Bainbridge and multiple agencies in Decatur County. The reality is this is a case about the Open Meetings Act. It is not about the bond validation. The Open Meetings Act. That's what Rebecca Davis argues multiple leaders violated back in December when the economic deal with Safer Human Medicine got the green light. Davis represents a handful of Decatur County neighbours who decided to take their grievances to court. Their lawsuit says neighbours weren't given enough information about the project before it moved forward.

41:46 Neighbours, including Laura White and Verna Merritt. They both were in the courtroom watching Tuesday morning. I was praying that our Lord God would intervene in his will to be done. It was an honour to be able to be here at this court case and quite a experience. So let me ask you, Christina, that's a huge facility. The bottom line with that report, which was pretty well done, I'm sure she only had a very short amount of time to put it together, so kudos to her, is that they did it behind your back. Tell us about that. Basically, in January, we were, a group of people got together because we saw the Project Liberty on an agenda and started doing research on- What about me?

42:47 You broke up again. Pick it up. Pick it up over there, Amy. Pick it up on what happened there. So the way I'm seeing it is they call this Project Liberty, which is just Orwellian. You're going to put 30,000 monkeys in cages and you're going to call it Project Liberty. Okay. Think about that for a second. Then they see this thing called Project Liberty on an agenda item and then what happens? Yeah. They start paying attention. Actually, one of the residents even went to one of the hearings where they were moving to approve this bond process.

43:30 From there, the local reporters started reporting on it and it really just exploded in the local community because at that point, the lid was off. People understood what they started to understand, what was coming to town and doing their own research about what this would mean for their community and the potential for zoonotic disease risks that come with these monkeys imported with severely immunocompromised bodies and the waste that they generate and then learning who these executives are in this company and their history with other companies importing monkeys that have been experiencing lots of violations of US law and apparently international law with these companies bringing in monkeys and experimenting on them.

44:22 They reached out to PETA for help as we were learning about it and we started working together. Yeah. You know what? PETA has always been, in both of the other cases that I covered, the one in Puerto Rico and the one in Hendry County, PETA was there front and centre. In fact, with the one in Hendry County, just as this was developing, PETA had done an undercover investigation with video at a nearby laboratory breeding facility, laboratory primate breeding facility, and that created shockwaves. It was in the news. One funny thing I want to say was that just as is happening in Bainbridge, the powers that be in Hendry County that were pushing for this ginormous laboratory monkey breeding facility, they wanted to become the bio farming capital of the world.

45:16 It's all coming back to me. They said, well, these are radical animal rights extremists who are trying to stop this. My friend who was in her 80s brought all her friends over to the hearing and they were all literally almost entirely a large group of senior citizens in tennis shoes, some of them in 80s and 85. They were the cutest group. I remember looking at the reporter going, look at your radical animal rights activists here, just local residents in their 80s and 70s in tennis shoes. They always try that, Amy.

45:58 They always go for that, these are radicals, when these are really people who live in the community who very reasonably don't want a ginormous monkey breeding facility in their homes. That's exactly right, Jane. They always paint everyone as radical extremists if you care about animals. They always paint themselves as people who are saving our children. It's just not the case. What's even more offensive to me when this company says that is that they don't even live in Bainbridge. They're bringing all these problems to a community that they don't even live in. They live in their mansion up in the New England area.

46:39 This isn't even their community to be disturbing. They have no sense of what this community wants and needs because they haven't even bothered to spend time getting to be on the ground and getting to know these people. If they did, they would meet people like Christina and understand what their values are and what they want their town to be. Their town was on the right trajectory having all these great improvements and all these great investments in their local downtown before this happened. They want to see more of that, of developing Bainbridge to a place that's friendly for families and a fun place to be, not a place that brings in dangerous monkey breeding facilities. Especially because we see right now with the weather in Georgia, it's just such a dangerous place to be building this kind of facility where monkeys could escape.

47:31 The 400,000 gallons of wastewater they're producing every day could be seeping into the water and the soil that the farmers rely on. It's just such a bad deal all around. And you brought up a very interesting point. I have covered this too as a reporter, monkeys who escape. These animals are very smart. And when you talk about 30,000 monkeys, oh my gosh, there have been many, many, many escapes from facilities that breed monkeys for laboratory experimentation. In fact, I'm just going to say it, facilities that breed monkeys to be tortured in laboratories.

48:13 Tell us a little bit about that, Amy. Yeah, like you said, they're extremely smart animals. It can happen. And it has happened at some of the most secure places in the country. So to think that it wouldn't happen here is just reckless, frankly. And beyond even the animals themselves getting out, we know that these animals, these monkeys are coming into the country. They would have to import them from Asia and Africa first before they could do any breeding, which I don't understand how they would even do that because there's so like, the number of monkeys left is just dwindling. But they come in and they can harbour dangerous pathogens that can cross over to not only humans, but to other animals.

48:57 And so their neighbours with animals next to it on these properties are really concerned about their own animals too. And of course, their children who'd be playing right next door to these places. It's just, there's just too many potential hazards to this facility coming in way more than any potential promise they're trying to get out of it other than money for themselves. All right, so where are we here? Because we've already done this story once. And I can tell you that Unchained TV, which is the world's only 100% plant -based animal rights streaming television network, you see it right behind me on my Samsung TV.

49:40 You can download it using an Amazon Fire Stick, a Roku device, or an Apple TV device. We're going to stay on top of this story. And I want to give kudos to the local news down there in Bainbridge because a lot of times these stories don't get the coverage. But those reporters, there were two reporters who did reports on this, they did a really good job. And I certainly would suggest, Christina, that you keep them up to date with every single thing you do. Because having been a local news reporter, my first job was in Fort Myers, Florida, many years ago, I would get calls from people, oh, there's a story. Hey, I'm going to pitch that story. I'm going to go cover it if I get the okay to cover it.

50:22 And that's creating relationships with the news organisations down there. So anytime you're doing something, turn it into a media event. That's really an important thing to do. So let's see, can we get a final thought from Christina? Am I here? Yep. Yeah. I touch base with our local media, our reporters, at least twice a week. So we're good friends now. So we stay in touch with everything weekly. And we're, our story is actually international. It's all over. So I'm grateful for that.

51:03 And thank you, Jane, for everything that you're doing for us. And I mean, this is just going to just bump us up another notch to put us out there. And we appreciate everything. We appreciate PETA. And everybody in this town that has really just put it out there. You know, it's really amazing to see everybody coming together. And you were not stopping. You were texting me that you've had four near tornado warnings in this year. You've had flood issues. So that also impacts, my gosh. The flood warning, we've also had, the river has, we've had three near floods from our, from the local river.

51:52 So, you know, and the facility, proposed facility site is right across the street, basically from the river. And this river is known to flood. So, you know, for all those reasons, I certainly think you have a much better shot than the naysayers are suggesting. I mean, when there's this kind of opposition, there is no such thing as a done deal. And one of the reports said, we only have a couple of seconds left, Amy, that some of the agencies involved have regretted it and said they are no longer in favour. That's right. You know, they at first were just hearing this company's rosy idea of what this would be.

52:36 And when they learned the truth, they, and when they heard from their own constituents and their own people who were their teachers growing up telling them that they're disappointed in their decisions, it really made them sit back and reflect and regret their decisions. And so hopefully we see more of that from the city officials. That's where we need it. And we encourage all concerned citizens to keep demanding answers because this is an industry that thrives in the dark. They try to stay in secrecy and it's time to keep exposing them. We're so grateful to the people of Bainbridge for doing that. Well, we're going to stay on top of it. Please donate to the GoFundMe and support PETA and go in and check out all the information.

53:21 This is a global issue. And now a plug for our streaming network. So it's a vegan network. Okay. That's the craziest thing I've ever heard. I love Unchained TV. Unchained. Unchained TV. Your life will change. It's just that easy. Unchained TV has all sorts of content for everybody. Unchained TV changed my life. Unchained TV is crushing it. I love Unchained TV. Unchained TV is my go-to. Unchained TV. Who knew? Unchained baby. See you next time.