They feel what we feel. No amount of money changes that.
By Vincent Cordova · Cordova 2028: Moving Forward Together
Part 2 of They Feel What We Feel: 30,000 Monkeys and the Conscience of a Nation
Two days ago, we answered Akshaya. She had asked for help for 30,000 monkeys in Bainbridge, Georgia, and we told her she was not alone.
She did not stop there. In her second video, she asked a simple question: who is paying for this?
That is the right question. Every cage has an invoice. Every project like this has someone signing the checks.
If we want to stop it, we have to know who they are.
8VC
Joe Lonsdale’s venture firm
$20M
Invested in 2023
Safer Human Medicine
CEO Jim Harkness
30,000
Monkeys planned in Bainbridge, GA
Forbes reported on October 27 that 8VC, the venture firm of Joe Lonsdale, put $20 million into Safer Human Medicine. That is most of the roughly $28 million the company has raised. (Forbes Argentina, CEOWORLD)
According to Forbes, the investment was made in 2023, when the company was founded. It became public only now. 8VC does not list the company in its portfolio. (Billionaires.Africa, citing Forbes)
Joe Lonsdale is a co-founder of Palantir, the data company that builds surveillance and targeting software for governments.
He has defended the investment in his own words.
“Pro-human.”
“Would you rather save your sibling or the monkey?”
“America needs a reliable domestic supply of research primates to help rapidly advance cures for our kids.”
Quotes via Futurism.
Safer Human Medicine is run by CEO Jim Harkness. Before this, he was chief operating officer at Envigo, the company behind the Cumberland, Virginia beagle facility. (Futurism)
Here is what happened there:
Case file · Envigo · Cumberland, Virginia
70+
The violations. Federal inspectors documented more than 70 Animal Welfare Act violations at Cumberland in four visits between July 2021 and March 2022. (National Geographic)
~4,000
The rescue. In 2022, Envigo was forced to give up about 4,000 beagles, who were taken out and placed in homes across the country. (KTVU)
$35M
The conviction. Envigo's parent company, Inotiv, pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $35 million, the largest fine ever in an animal welfare case. (Futurism, dvm360)
To be fair and precise: Mr. Harkness was never personally charged, and he declined to comment to Forbes. But this happened at the company where he helped run operations.
Now he wants to do it again, with 30,000 primates of an endangered species, and investors have handed him the money to try.
Let me be careful here. Palantir, the company, is not funding this. Joe Lonsdale's venture firm is.
But the name matters for one reason. It shows us the kind of power standing behind this facility. This is not a small-town business plan. It is backed by some of the wealthiest and most connected people in America.
The people of Bainbridge, a town of about 14,000, are fighting this in court on their own dime. On the other side is Silicon Valley money and a company that sued their county when it tried to back out. (WAMC/NPR)
Bainbridge, Georgia
~14,000
residents in court on their own dime
The other side
$28M
raised, and a lawsuit against their county
That is not a fair fight.
It is our job to make it one.
Their claim
“Would you rather save your sibling or the monkey?”
The answer
That is a false choice. More than 90% of drugs that pass animal tests fail in human trials. (Humane Society, via Tifton Gazette) Caging 30,000 monkeys does not save anyone's sibling. Better science does. Human cell models, organs-on-chips, and computer modeling are built on human biology. That is where cures for our kids will come from.
Their claim
“America needs a domestic supply.”
The answer
No. America needs medicine that works for humans. If we are going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars, let us spend it on the science of the future, not on warehouses of the past.
In Part 1, I laid out the Primate Protection and Human-Relevant Science Act. Akshaya's new findings show we need to go further. To those five commitments, we will add:
Any company that applies for a federal animal dealer license, or sells animals to federally funded research, must publicly disclose its major investors. Communities have a right to know who is behind a project before it is approved.
Federal licensing reviews will look at the track record of the people running a company, not just its name. If you helped run a facility that was convicted under the Animal Welfare Act, that record follows you.
No agency will buy primates from any facility built to breed them at industrial scale, no matter who funds it.
Money does not get to decide what is right.
Akshaya asked people to help. Here is how to do it in a way that wins:
Share her new video. Share this post. The more people know who is behind this, the harder it is to hide.
Contact your officials. Call your county, state, and federal representatives. In Georgia, call your state legislators and Governor’s office. Ask them where they stand.
Contact the agencies. Write to the USDA, which licenses animal dealers, and to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees primate imports. Tell them you are watching.
Speak to the investors publicly. Investors respond to public pressure on the record. Keep it to their public channels and keep it respectful.
Support the groups and residents fighting this. Support the animal welfare organizations and the Bainbridge residents who have been in court for nearly three years.
One more thing. Please do not target individual workers at this company. Many are people who needed a job. Our fight is with the decision makers and the money, and it is won through the law, the courts, and the vote. Keep it peaceful, keep it lawful, and keep it loud.
Part 1 ended with a promise: this will stop. Now we know who is paying for it. That only makes the promise stronger.
They feel what we feel.
No amount of money changes that.I am a piece of the collective essence of this world that never gives up and needs every other piece to be whole.
Sources
Part 1: They Feel What We Feel →
30,000 monkeys and the conscience of a nation.
The Beagles →
The voice of conscience and our duty as guardians.
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Vincent Cordova · Candidate for U.S. President 2028
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