Non-human primates are used in biomedical research due to their physiological and cognitive similarity to humans. This same similarity creates the strongest case for rigorous welfare standards and replacement efforts.
Primate research presents the sharpest version of the animal research welfare dilemma: the cognitive and emotional capacities that make primates valuable research models are the same capacities that make their suffering most significant. Social primates confined individually, subjected to repeated procedures, and denied species-appropriate behaviour experience substantial suffering that cannot be eliminated through enrichment alone. The Three Rs framework demands active progress toward replacement of primates with non-animal models, reduction of numbers used, and maximum refinement of conditions for those that remain in use.