On the death of my monkey

My monkey died as he lived in seclusion, for the benefit of others.

His name was r04040. He was euthanized on April 28, 2010, two days after his sixth birthday. More than four years would pass before I made the records request that reacquainted me with his reality, and apprised me of his fate.

According to his former keepers, r04040 died serving a greater cause. He may have kept human beings from undergoing treatment that was not only unhelpful but dangerous. The study that led to his death was funded in part by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinsons Research.

I was there on the day r04040 was born, at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was a rhesus macaque, like about three-quarters of the 2,000 monkeys housed at the UW. These animals live out their lives in small cages, never once seeing the sky or sun or grass or trees.

The sign on his incubator said: Born today, rejected by mother, male infant. He was swaddled in a blue blanket. At first I thought he was dead; then he opened his tiny eyes. I may have been the first person he saw.

At the time, like everyone who gets inside the primate center, I was decked out head to toe in bizarre garb, including a shower cap and plastic face shield. These prophylactics and the tuberculosis test I had to take were for the protection of the monkeys, not me.

I was told that monkey mothers sometimes reject their babies, even in the wild, and that r04040 was paired with a surrogate mom. I took his picture, and used it for an article on primate research that appeared in Isthmus on June 4, 2004.

Five years later, in 2009, I wrote another article, focused on this monkey. My monkey. I wanted to explore the life of a single research animal.

The records I obtained showed that r04040 had not been used in any experiments. He was too young. Very few get used before they're five years old, said Saverio "Buddy" Capuano, the primate centers head veterinarian.

There was still plenty of time. Rhesus macaques in captivity can live up to 40 years.

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On the death of my monkey