The Harvard expert who sewed up the eyes of baby monkeys also rips them out of their mother’s arms.

A Harvard neuroscientist who was criticized last month for sewing up the eyes of baby monkeys is again being denounced by colleagues for yet another experiment in which baby monkeys were torn from their mothers immediately after birth.

mother love triggers”, a study published in September was conducted by Margaret Livingston, who removed babies before mothers. woke up from anesthesia to see how the adult monkeys react.

Question raised by scientists and animal rights activists is that unnurtured babies experience long-term consequences, including excessive fear, aggression, and abnormal reproductive behavior.

BUT letter More than 250 scientists have signed PNAS, the journal that published the study, calling for the article to be removed and criticizing Harvard Medical School for allowing experiments to continue that “cause irreversible harm to baby primates.”

Margaret Livingston made headlines last month for a previous study in which she sewed up the eyes of baby monkeys for up to a year.

Margaret Livingston made headlines last month for a previous study in which she sewed up the eyes of baby monkeys for up to a year.

DailyMail.com has contacted Livingston for comment.

The September study builds on previous research showing that baby monkeys separated from their mothers form lasting attachments to inanimate surrogate mothers if the ‘surrogate mother’ has a soft texture.

And Livingston and her team wanted to see if the same thing happened to monkey mothers.

The experiments involved a total of five different female monkeys, all of whom had their babies removed immediately after birth and replaced with a soft toy.

Livingston explains that three females took a stuffed toy and carried it for a week or several months, while the other two showed “no interest in any toy and no restlessness upon awakening from anesthesia.”

However, an eight-year-old primiparous female rhesus monkey, Ve, gave birth to a stillborn baby, which she carried on her chest, not realizing that he was dead.

Livingston had to remove the lifeless body for examination by veterinarians, while the mother was under light anesthesia.

“When she woke up a few minutes later, she showed significant signs of stress: she screamed loudly and constantly and seemed to be excitedly ransacking her enclosure,” the study says.

She is now under fire for a September study in which she separated baby monkeys from their mothers immediately after they were both born to see how the mothers would react.

She is now under fire for a September study in which she separated baby monkeys from their mothers immediately after they were both born to see how the mothers would react.

“Other monkeys kept in the same room also started to make sounds and became agitated.”

Again, a stuffed animal was placed in the cage and the female was sedated almost immediately.

The controversy has sparked a lot of backlash in the scientific community, especially among animal behavior researchers and primatologists, said Alan McElligot of the Animal Health Center at the City University of Hong Kong and co-author of the PNAS letter.

He told AFP that Livingston appeared to be replicating a study done by the infamous American psychologist Harry Harlow in the mid-20th century.

Harlow’s experiments in maternal deprivation of rhesus monkeys were considered groundbreaking, but they may also have contributed to the development of the early animal liberation movement.

“They just ignored all the literature we have on attachment theory,” added Holly Root-Gutteridge, an animal behaviorist at Lincoln University in the UK. It means

Livingston and Harvard, for their part, strongly defended the study.

Livingston’s observations “may help scientists understand the maternal bond in humans and may help women cope with loss immediately following a miscarriage or stillbirth,” the Harvard Medical School said in a statement.

The experiments involved a total of five different female monkeys who were given a toy after their babies were taken away.  The issue raised by scientists and animal rights activists is that unnurtured babies suffer long-term consequences.

The experiments involved a total of five different female monkeys who were given a toy after their babies were taken away. The issue raised by scientists and animal rights activists is that unnurtured babies suffer long-term consequences.

However, this statement is not welcomed by other scientists and animal rights activists, who are calling not only for the article to be withdrawn, but also for Harvard to close the laboratory.

“Monkeys separated from their mothers exhibit excessive shyness and/or aggression, produce excessive stress hormones, exhibit abnormal reproductive behavior, and often occupy lower positions in social dominance hierarchies,” the letter says.

He goes on to explain that these babies show excessive fear, aggression, and produce more stress hormones than those not taken from their mothers.

The letter continues to report sleep problems and self-inflicted injuries.

We ask the members of HMS IACUC to review this laboratory’s procedures and urge you to revoke Livingston’s approvals for its experimental protocols involving baby primates given the short and long term harm they cause to these monkeys and the likely deleterious effects on research data.” concludes the letter.

A letter signed by more than 250 scientists to PNAS, the journal that published the study, calls for the article to be removed and criticizes Harvard Medical School for allowing experiments to continue that

A letter signed by more than 250 scientists to PNAS, the journal that published the study, calls for the article to be removed and criticizes Harvard Medical School for allowing experiments to continue that “cause irreversible harm to baby primates.”

Livingston made headlines last month when it was discovered that in 2016 and 2020 she had stitched up the eyelids of baby monkeys in the name of studying visual impairments.

Livingston declined to comment on the matter when asked by DailyMail.com, but shared a public statement condemning the attacks, stressing that her lab “didn’t perform eyelid closures after two separate incidents in 2016.” “remains a routine protocol in research labs studying visual impairment.”

Research has brought back memories of baby monkey Britches rescued from UC Riverside in 1985.

The monkey was taken along with 700 animals during a nighttime raid, but members of the Animal Liberation Front found that a sonar was attached to Britch’s head, emitting a high-pitched screech every few minutes, and his eyes were bandaged.

When the bandages were removed, animal advocates discovered that his eyes had been sewn shut.

However, in Livingston’s statement, she notes that in 2016 they “performed two reversible eyelid closure procedures in macaque monkeys using absorbable sutures as described in the peer-reviewed literature.”

This procedure is also done in children and infants with certain eye tumors or to treat invasive eye infections.

“Pediatric surgeons give these children anesthesia and painkillers.

“We did the same with our little macaques so they don’t get hurt.”