Dozens plead to Hendry County leaders to shut down monkey farm

HENDRY COUNTY, Fla. — Neighbors are fired up and demanding a controversial monkey farm in Hendry County be shut down.

Tuesday night, dozens of people voiced their concerns to county commissioners about Primate Products, which sits on 600-acres toward the center of the state.

“I think this thing should be shut down now, today,” said one resident.

“Shut those monkey facilities down,” said another.

For well over an hour people pleaded with Hendry County Commissioners to shut down the monkey breeding facility Primate Products.

“Can you imagine if that facility, if a hurricane or something tragic happens and all the monkeys run off with all these diseases, god knows what they are doing over there,” said a concerned resident.

A WINK News exclusive investigation revealed the company performs tests and experiments on the monkeys.
Hendry County officials claim they had no idea what was happening inside Primate Products and launched their own investigation.

“Hendry county is looking at a number of aspects of all of these primate facilities,” said commissioner Karson Turner.

Some don’t think the counties own investigation is good enough.

“Excuse me for getting emotional, but there needs to be an investigation, non bias, to go in there and see what’s going on,” said one protestor.

County Commissioner Karson Turner tells WINK News he is listening to everyone’s concerns.

“I think there is a tremendous amount of mis-information out there, unfortunately many times that is what becomes the reality,” said Turner.

“I feel that Hendry county has done nothing wrong at this time,” said Turner.

Hendry County does have an active investigation to see if Primate Products is violating any zoning ordinances by performing tests on the monkeys. The commissioners did not comment on the status of that investigation.