WaPo: “When 43 monkeys escaped from a South Carolina research facility on Nov. 6, countless human cousins around the country cheered them on. Indeed, the Freedom Monkeys provided a reprieve from the malaise at least half the country was feeling after Donald Trump was elected president the day before. Yes, of course, I cheered. I’m wearing my pompoms as I write this.
No one likes to think about the 70,000 monkeys per year that wind up in U.S. research laboratories for drug and other experiments. Thus, when the 43 young female rhesus macaque primates managed to escape their captors this month, animal lovers enjoyed a shared moment of rare grace. All we needed was Morgan Freeman’s “God” voice reporting the primates’ progress among the Lowcountry’s expansive treetops.”