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The local citizen group Stand Up Bainbridge GA, one of the primary opponents of the proposed Safer Human Medicine primate facility, has been rather busy lately. Safer Human Medicine recently mailed out letters to the community, touting the jobs and benefits offered.

“With jobs at our company, you won’t have to leave the Bainbridge area to find good wages, medical/dental/life insurance, matching 401k, generous paid time off, and opportunities to advance and grow your career,” the letter stated.

The Stand Up Bainbridge group responded with a group disposal of their letters, with a trash can for anyone that wanted to dispose of their letter. Other residents voiced their protests on social media, posting photos of them burning their letters.

Following these letters and the recent Appellate Court’s ruling in favor of Safer Human Medicine’s bond, the core members of the Stand Up Bainbridge group held a roundtable event to discuss the recent events, and provide their counters to claims made by SHM.  The major update provided at the meeting was that District Attorney Joe Mulholland has filed his intent to take the bond ruling before the state Supreme Court.

After this update, the group proceeded to rebut multiple claims and statements Safer Human Medicine executives made in an interview with WALB. These rebuttals included the nature of SHM’s project agreements with the local government; arguing that SHM has oversold the amount of jobs and pay the facility will provide; and countering SHM’s statements about CDC quarantine of non-human primates.

“There just seems to be so much PR going on from their side, to try to sanitize the picture of this whole thing,” group member Lisa DaSilva stated.

Safer Human Medicine issued a response to Mulholland’s intent to take the bond ruling to the Supreme Court last week, which read: “The Court of Appeals’ decision was very clear about Georgia law and the economic development process. SHM will continue defending its rights to ensure this project moves forward. Our goal is to advance this project in Bainbridge, provide good jobs, ensure high-quality operations, and support the American medical research community.”

One recent event on many Bainbridge citizens’ minds is the recent escape of 43 Rhesus macaques from an Alpha Genesis facility in South Carolina. As of the writing of this article, six of the primates remain loose, with 37 reportedly recaptured. Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard has stated that the facility’s triple-gate system failed due to an employee’s mistake; each of the three gates were supposed to be locked before opening one of the others, yet all three were left unlocked.

In conjunction with their statement about the bond appeal, SHM also spoke on the South Carolina escape: “Our company’s highest priority is the safety and security of our primates. That priority has guided us in designing every aspect of our facility in Bainbridge, GA. As a result, we have built in numerous safeguards with redundancies that prevent the opportunity for escape: •All exits have double barrier door systems with mechanisms that prevent two exterior doors from being open at the same time. This makes it impossible for an animal to gain direct access outside of the building.

• We will have a proven perimeter fencing design that will serve as an additional safeguard. We will maintain a sufficient barrier to prevent falling trees and other debris from compromising this exterior security.
• Our buildings are engineered to withstand extreme weather events with safeguards that prevent escape in even the most severe circumstances, including hurricane strength winds.

These and other measures distinguish our facility as one of the most innovative and secure facilities of its kind. 

We share the concern for the well-being of all 43 animals and trust that they will be returned safely.”