Baboons bid for freedom in Camperdown

Baboons bid for freedom in Camperdown

by ALEC SMART

On Tues 25 Feb three baboons on route to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Camperdown escaped and went roaming around the grounds of the hospital. A 15-year old male baboon scheduled for a vasectomy, accompanied by two females, managed to open the rear door of the truck transporting them and made a bid for freedom.

Mobile phone video footage taken by Michael Tran and shared across social media show the trio skirting past parked cars and ambulances as they snuck down the side of the hospital.

Baboons bolting
Listeners to talkback radio 2GB were among the first to be made aware of the primates’ bid for freedom when a caller, named Michael, rang Ben Fordham Live program and announced he’d seen the baboons from a window on an upper level of the hospital.

“Mate I’m dead-set serious,” he declared. “I’m at RPA, I’m six floors up and I was just having a gaze out at the carpark … and there were three baboons in the carpark – now I’m talking ‘from the zoo’ baboons! So, is there a missing baboon warning out or anything like that?”

When Fordham sounded skeptical, Michael continued: “I’m dead-set serious! They even had shiny red bottoms!” Michael continued, “I had a coffee about an hour ago and I thought, ‘What have they put in this coffee?!’ Even the nurses here have gone, ‘My god!’”

A woman caller named Trisha updated listeners when she revealed “I just texted my daughter, she’s an occupational therapist at RPA and she said ‘Yes mum, I’ve just helped wrangle them.’ She was walking out the front door to go to her car to go home when they ran past her, and a few of her colleagues ran after them…

“She said, ‘MUM, THEY WERE PSYCHOTIC!’ and this was all in capital letters in her text message.”

However, NSW Minister for Health and Medical Research Brad Hazzard countered claims they were ‘psychotic’ when he described the runaways as “impeccably behaved”. Hazzard also told The Guardian: “They are quite placid and behaving themselves far better than one would expect.”

Hazzard explained that the two female baboons accompanying the male were “there to keep him calm because tomorrow he was due for a vasectomy. He cut loose before the big cut!”

Hazzard explained: “The reason they are doing it [the vasectomy] is to allow him to continue to live his life in peace and harmony with his own family, and they couldn’t have him continuing constantly to breed within the troupe because it presents all sorts of genetic problems. The operation will go ahead and then he will be returned to his colony with the two females.”

It’s highly likely the runaways were familiar with the hospital from previous trips. Baboons, which are bred and kept at the Sydney Local Health District-run baboon colony at Wallacia in Western Sydney, are used for ongoing medical research at RPA Hospital.

Although these three were not scheduled for experiments, Hazzard explained: “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.”

The runaway baboons were reportedly sedated by expert primate handlers from Taronga Zoo and returned to the Wallacia colony.

A NSW Police spokesperson confirmed: “Just after 5.30pm officers from Inner West Police Area Command were called to a car park on Missenden Road and Lucas Street, Camperdown, after reports three baboons escaped while being transported…”

The last time escaped animals caused such a stir in Sydney was in March 2014 when two water buffalo bulls, part of a film set in Sydney Park, escaped and ran down Newtown’s King Street, chasing pedestrians. Ironically they ended up in the same area as the baboons – Missenden Road – and were recaptured outside University of Sydney.

Social media made light of the baboons’ bolt for freedom, with many witty tweets and comments appearing across Twitter and Facebook. One very droll commentator, Joe Cordy, posted on Twitter: “Can’t believe Melbournians think Sydney has no culture when stuff like this happens.”

Medical experiments
However, Animal Justice Party MP Emma Hurst reminded the public of the reason for the baboons’ captivity and described the trio as “medical experimentation survivors.”

The politician, psychologist and vegan bodybuilder posted on Twitter: “Tonight several baboons have made an attempted flee to freedom in a desperate attempt to avoid further painful procedures forced upon their bodies against their will,” adding, “These are the hidden faces behind animal experimentation in this country… They must be feeling so frightened and so alone in this cruel world.”

In January 2016 Fairfax Media published the results of a six-month investigation describing ‘Frankenstein-like surgical experiments’ undertaken on primates at a number of Sydney hospitals and universities, including RPA and the University of Sydney.

The report revealed: “Millions of dollars of research grants are being used for a variety of experiments but the hospitals involved have refused to release details about how many baboons or other primates have been experimented on, and how many have died or had to be killed.

“NSW Health also denied a whole organ transplant had taken place, despite details emerging of Conan, a baboon who had to be killed because of fatal complications arising from the insertion of a pig’s kidney into his body…

“In a separate experiment on pregnant baboons, a mother was killed by accident leaving an orphaned baby, and another baby baboon died as a result of the testing.”

A spokeswoman from the Sydney Local Health District responsible for Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, which oversees the Wallacia baboon colony and also conducts research experiments, told the Sydney Morning Herald in Jan 2016: “The colony has helped medical researchers conduct important research which has contributed significantly to paving the way for new treatments of disorders such as pre-eclampsia, complicated diabetes, kidney disorders and vascular diseases.”

After the three baboons were recaptured on 25 Feb, the Sydney Morning Herald quoted a source with “direct knowledge of the medical research baboons” used by RPA Hospital, who revealed they are “housed in a low-security building but not many people know they are there. The baboons are used for studies on subjects including diet, exercise and electric shock.

“When they die, they are used for medical transplants to each other and further experiments.”

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