Following a six-month investigation involving hundreds of pages of internal records, CAARE has uncovered truly grotesque and indefensible experiments on pregnant baboons and their babies at University of Maryland, Baltimore. (UMB).

According to documents from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) obtained by CAARE, UMB researchers are cutting unborn babies out of pregnant baboons in cruel and lethal experiments.

Female baboons, who spend their lives single-housed in steel cages, are impregnated repeatedly, only to have their babies cut out of them and put through invasive experiments.

These deadly baboon experiments are slated to continue through at least 2029. Please send your letter to NIH and UMB demanding an end to these monstrous and baseless experiments that have gone on for at least 25 years without producing any treatments for humans.

Experimenters inject pregnant baboons with estrogen blockers to investigate the impact of low estrogen on diabetes in offspring. Other experiments in this same lab carve up baboon mothers and babies to study the intricate circulatory system around pregnancy.

The current research proposal outlines a plan to use 224 baboon fetuses – most of whom will be cut out of their mothers via C-section and immediately killed for analysis.

Surviving babies will be forcibly weaned at 8 months old and put through numerous invasive experiments involving dangerous induced insulin surges, catheters passed into the heart, and multiple muscle and organ biopsies.

Some of the infant baboons will be allowed to live through at least age 4 but these survivors will likely be reused in pancreatic failure experiments.

U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection reports show that UMB has racked up violations by subjecting baboon mothers to numerous invasive C-sections in direct violation of the law regarding how many surgeries an animal can undergo.

Not only are these experiments cruel and horrific, they’re also clinically irrelevant. We know from decades of clinical research on human populations that there is no evidence that low estrogen in pregnancy is a significant factor for diabetes in babies or children. In fact, the opposite seems to be true: high estrogen in pregnancy has shown some correlation with diabetes in children.

These archaic experiments, which originally began some 45 years ago, must be replaced by modern human-relevant methods,  that don’t use baboons or other animals. Scientists have developed in vitro mini-placentas and organoids, as well as organ-chip systems that simulate pregnancy-specific drug metabolism. Advanced imaging techniques like Arterial Spin Labeling (pCASL), 3D MRI and high-resolution ultrasound provide safe, detailed assessments of placental health and function, enabling careful detection and monitoring of fetal development.

UMB’s hideous experiments on baboon babies and mothers must end. Send your polite letter today to NIH and UMB to stop this cruel outdated research. Demand UMB truly protect mothers and babies by conducting only humane, modern and scientifically superior research without animals.

Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research and Experimentation (CAARE), is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, established to highlight and promote research without animals.

Please donate to support CAARE’s mission to reduce animal suffering by disseminating information about the power and progress of research without animals.