American taxpayers are funding Ron Boothe from Yerkes Primate Center at Emory University to blind baby monkeys via grant # 5R01EY005975-13 (1999= $292,234.00)**. Boothe’s experiments involve removing newborns from their mothers, depriving them of vision, placing them in an incubator for various times and testing . Boothe claims he is studying infantile blindness but has produced nothing to help human children and is repeating experiments performed for decades across the U.S. that have not helped humans. Boothe's conclusions are well-established in humans and is hardly surprising in monkeys. Boothe and colleagues also contend their results relate to theories of amblyopic development, yet it is virtually impossible to apply these finding to humans. Eyelid suturing or eye patching of primates causes visual deprivation that differs from cataracts, corneal opacities, and other common forms of human visual deprivation in the quality and quantity of light received by the retina. While monkey neurophysiology is somewhat similar to that of humans, it is not the same. Primate data have provided misleading information about the critical period during which amblyopia develops in humans. Without accurate human data, it is not possible to determine whether or not the monkey data could ever be extrapolated to humans--thus the data becomes irrelevant.
Researcher’s salaries depend on taxpayer funded grants like Boothe’s and Emory University supports these antiquated methods to keep the bucks rolling in. Job security for many is at risk when useless experiments like this are examined. We want to share with you what we know about useless research conducted at Emory and paid for with our tax money that doesn’t help sick people.

**Boothe's current funding is now part of a consolidated grant to Yerkes.