Senior Airman surprises cousin on Aubrey Rogers softball senior nightPolice: 15-year-old injured after accidentally shot in the leg
NORTH NAPLES Senior Airman surprises cousin on Aubrey Rogers softball senior night Aubrey Rogers senior pitcher and infielder McKenzie Vargas surprised by her Air Force cousin for Senior Night.
BONITA SPRINGS Police: 15-year-old injured after accidentally shot in the leg Lee County deputies say the teen was accidentally shot in the leg.
PUNTA GORDA Exclusive: Brother and best friend of accused pedophile priest speak out Riley’s brother reached out to WINK on Friday, saying people aren’t getting the full story.
IMMOKALEE Caught on video: Huge gator crosses Immokalee neighborhood Fridays in Florida are for gators
FORT MYERS FGCU softball pitcher making a name for herself One season in FGCU, freshman pitcher Allison Sparkman is already ruffling feathers in the circle.
Surrendering-pets trend at Gulf Coast Humane Society concerns An large amount of pets are being surrendered by their owners. About half of the dogs at the Gulf Coast Humane Society are surrender dogs.
Students benefitting from millions in sales tax dollars So far, the voter-approved half-cent sales tax has brought in $507 million for the Lee County School District.
PORT CHARLOTTE ‘Shady’: One woman feels misled after federal student loan consolidation It takes some people decades to pay off their student loans. One woman’s last payment was in sight until she took a gamble she said she was told to take.
FORT MYERS Homeless encampments inch closer to neighborhoods Law enforcement has swept multiple encampments, cleaning the trails of mess and muck left behind, and some of these encampments are right in our backyards.
BIG CYPRESS PRESERVE What changes if Big Cypress National Preserve becomes a Wilderness Area? America’s first nationally designated preserve is in Southwest Florida’s backyard, and it is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Method to treat IBD being used for other health issues Trying to get treatments for the brain when fighting neurological diseases like epilepsy and ALS is a challenge.
FORT MYERS NTSB report reveals new details in helicopter crash after Hurricane Ian The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its final report on a helicopter crash that occurred in Iona, Florida, shortly after Hurricane Ian.
NAPLES Memorial celebrates the life of John Passidomo Hundreds of friends and family gathered for a memorial at Baker Park in Naples.
‘Latinos in Action’ empowers all students to succeed WINK News talked with teachers who are a part of the program, helping kids reach their full potential.
Immokalee ‘The eyes always draw me in’; Immokalee portrait artist turns dark times into color One of Southwest Florida best portrait artist, Martha Maria Cantu, almost gave up art. Now she’s on the forefront of the city of Immokalee, to make her community filled with color.
NORTH NAPLES Senior Airman surprises cousin on Aubrey Rogers softball senior night Aubrey Rogers senior pitcher and infielder McKenzie Vargas surprised by her Air Force cousin for Senior Night.
BONITA SPRINGS Police: 15-year-old injured after accidentally shot in the leg Lee County deputies say the teen was accidentally shot in the leg.
PUNTA GORDA Exclusive: Brother and best friend of accused pedophile priest speak out Riley’s brother reached out to WINK on Friday, saying people aren’t getting the full story.
IMMOKALEE Caught on video: Huge gator crosses Immokalee neighborhood Fridays in Florida are for gators
FORT MYERS FGCU softball pitcher making a name for herself One season in FGCU, freshman pitcher Allison Sparkman is already ruffling feathers in the circle.
Surrendering-pets trend at Gulf Coast Humane Society concerns An large amount of pets are being surrendered by their owners. About half of the dogs at the Gulf Coast Humane Society are surrender dogs.
Students benefitting from millions in sales tax dollars So far, the voter-approved half-cent sales tax has brought in $507 million for the Lee County School District.
PORT CHARLOTTE ‘Shady’: One woman feels misled after federal student loan consolidation It takes some people decades to pay off their student loans. One woman’s last payment was in sight until she took a gamble she said she was told to take.
FORT MYERS Homeless encampments inch closer to neighborhoods Law enforcement has swept multiple encampments, cleaning the trails of mess and muck left behind, and some of these encampments are right in our backyards.
BIG CYPRESS PRESERVE What changes if Big Cypress National Preserve becomes a Wilderness Area? America’s first nationally designated preserve is in Southwest Florida’s backyard, and it is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Method to treat IBD being used for other health issues Trying to get treatments for the brain when fighting neurological diseases like epilepsy and ALS is a challenge.
FORT MYERS NTSB report reveals new details in helicopter crash after Hurricane Ian The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its final report on a helicopter crash that occurred in Iona, Florida, shortly after Hurricane Ian.
NAPLES Memorial celebrates the life of John Passidomo Hundreds of friends and family gathered for a memorial at Baker Park in Naples.
‘Latinos in Action’ empowers all students to succeed WINK News talked with teachers who are a part of the program, helping kids reach their full potential.
Immokalee ‘The eyes always draw me in’; Immokalee portrait artist turns dark times into color One of Southwest Florida best portrait artist, Martha Maria Cantu, almost gave up art. Now she’s on the forefront of the city of Immokalee, to make her community filled with color.
HENDRY COUNTY, Fla.- A former Hendry County monkey farm worker says what he was asked to do was so horrific, he had to quit his job after only two days. “When I got involved in that, I knew I just couldn’t live with myself if I was going to be doing that,” former Primate Products vet tech David Roebuck said. “I couldn’t do it.” Roebuck says workers at Primate Products’ “Panther Tracks” facility located near Immokalee were regularly told to perform C-section abortions on pregnant female monkeys, remove the dead fetus, then package it for sale to buyers. Roebuck said milk was then extracted from the female cytomologus monkeys using human breast pumps, which was also sold to laboratories. “The internal organs were then taken from the fetuses and freeze dried and sold to pharmaceutical companies,” Roebuck said. “After that was done, the mothers were still lactating so they collected their milk and sold them to another pharmaceutical company” Roebuck said Primate Products is much more than just a breeder. He said it is a research facility. “The point of it is to make money,” Roebuck said. “They had financial contracts with pharmaceutical companies, to provide a certain amount of milk for a certain amount of money.” Exclusive documents obtained by WINK News corroborate the practice. The documents are allegedly a part of Primate Products standard operating procedure manual which instructs the person performing the surgery how to slice open the primate and remove the fetus, then freeze organs should the female monkey die in the process. “If you know what a deep freezer looks like, there were two of those, filled with parts,” Roebuck said. “Internal organs, that had to be taken out of the fetuses surgically.” This new insight into the alleged practices of Primate Products comes only days before Hendry County officials said they will decide if it will take action against the company for possibly operating outside of the perimeter of its zoning. The more than 600-acre property is agriculturally zoned for animal husbandry. Hendry County administrator Charles Chapman told WINK News last week if the company is conducting animal tests or experiments it is violating the agricultural zoning code. Chapman said he had no idea the company was doing anything but breeding monkeys until an exclusive WINK News investigation revealed USDA documents detailing hundreds of tests and experiments were performed at the facility. Primate Products representative Ed Mashburn told county officials there was no testing or experiments happening at the facility during a 2012 development-permit pre-application meeting. Primate Products president Thomas Rowell tells WINK News the company’s practices are “hardly” testing or research, and claims there is a reason for the procedures. “The idea being we can provide tissue from one animal to be used for in-vitro research,” Rowell wrote in an email response. “Possibly eliminating the need to use hundred[s] of live animals for in-vivo research in the future.” Rowell emailed the following statement: “Primate Products provides bioproducts for use in biomedical research consistent with the guiding principles of humane use of animals in scientific research which we refer to the 3 R’s: replace, reduce, and refine.” Rowell told WINK News last week that tests reported to the USDA were cases of animal “usage.” He said usage means obtaining bodily fluids, including spinal fluid and blood from the monkeys, then selling the samples to laboratories. Rowell did not mention C-section abortions or fetus removal. Primate Products expanded its facility over the past two years and is leasing some of its newly-built property to foreign monkey breeder BioCulture, Hendry County officials confirmed. Hendry County officials did not return calls prior to broadcast or publication of this report Monday evening. Primate Products has been operating in Hendry County for more than 15 years and is the county’s largest and oldest monkey farm.