YEMASSEE, SC (WCSC) – The CEO of a Beaufort County research facility where 43 monkeys escaped last week confirmed five were recaptured Monday.

This brings the total number of rhesus macaques recaptured to 30, leaving 13 more in the wild, Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard said.

The update comes amid reports that the facility received millions of dollars in taxpayer funding, government data show.

The US Department of Health and Human Services awarded the Alpha Genesis Primate Research Center more than $19 million in 2024 alone, according to federal government spending data. Most of these funds come from taxpayer dollars.

Justin Goodman, senior vice president of the nonprofit White Coast Waste Project, says his group’s goal is to get the government out of the animal testing business so taxpayer dollars don’t fund these labs.

Alpha Genesis has faced violations from the United States Department of Agriculture, including a warning issued in 2022 and a fine in 2017 for violating the housing, handling and veterinary care of primates.

“It’s incredibly cruel and incredibly wasteful and inefficient, and taxpayers don’t get a good return on investment for animal testing,” Goodman says. “Millions and millions of animals are tortured and killed in painful experiments and we get no cures.”

Goodman says they worked with U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, who introduced a bill this summer to prohibit the National Institutes of Health from conducting or supporting research that causes significant pain or suffering to a nonhuman primate and for other purposes.

A total of 43 primates escaped from the facility last Wednesday and 25 were recaptured over the weekendWestergaard said.

“They are all in good condition,” he said. “Others stay close in the trees.”

Crews continue to recover the remaining 18.

Alpha Genesis has not yet responded to a request for comment on the taxpayer funding.

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