Justice’s Order Bars Killing 2 Monkeys

WASHINGTON — A Supreme Court justice Wednesday barred the killing of two monkeys in a Louisiana medical experiment after two federal judges refused to do so earlier in the day.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy granted a petition from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals for a temporary restraining order on the killing of the monkeys, who were seized in an animal-cruelty case 10 years ago.

Kennedy’s order against the National Institutes of Health instructed the Justice Department to file by today its arguments as to why the experiment should be allowed to proceed.

The monkeys, named Titus and Allen, are being kept for the NIH by Tulane University’s Delta Regional Primate Center in Covington, La. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has been trying for years to gain legal custody of them.

The animals were confiscated by police in 1981 from a Silver Spring, Md., laboratory, following complaints that they were treated cruelly. NIH and university officials say the monkeys are suffering and should be put to death. Dr. Peter Gerone, director of the primate center, said researchers intended to conduct an experiment on the animals’ brains while they were under “terminal anesthesia.”