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A safe and reliable method for temporary restraint of monkeys
Physiology and Behavior. Vol. 4, pp. 431-432. Pergamon Press, 1969 Printed in Great Britain
BRIEF COMMUNICATION A Safe and Reliable Method for Temporary Restraint of Monkeys' R O B E R T B. G L A S S M A N , 2 N U B I O N E G R h , O a A N D R O B E R T W. D O T Y
Center for Brain Research, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627 (Received 26 December 1968)
GLA~MAN, R. B., N. NF_.ORJ[OAND R. W. DorY. A safe and reliable methodfor temporary restraint of monkeys. PHYSIOL. BEHAV.4 (3) 431-432, 1969.--A procedure is described by which macaques can be easily and safely put into primate restraining chairs. When needed, the chair is attached to the cage door and the animal pulled into it by a chained collar. Monkeys
Restraint
Animal handling
Safety
portion of the chain which is around the animal's neck is covered with heavy plastic tubing to prevent chafing or discomfort to the animal. When the slack has been taken up on the chain, Le., when the monkey has been drawn securely against the rear portion of the collar in the chair, the chain is locked or held firmly in place, the chair removed, and the front collar-piece secured in place by two heavy pins. Within a week or two the animals learn to accommodate themselves to this procedure without undue struggling. With animals that offer violent resistance at first, it is more convenient to draw the chain through the hole in the head cover so as to prevent the animal getting its jaw beneath the sliding collar. So long as the head is held firmly at the back of the chair restraint can be accomplished safely. When it is desirable to prevent the animal's rotating itself in the chair, the legs are held by straps bolted to the side of the chair. For use with animals bearing chronically implanted electrodes the upper portion of the cage has been made of rather fine mesh material and free of interior protrusions where the animal might obtain purchase to pry loose the electrode assembly. It is important that the animal when free within the cage be given only a sufficient length of chain to allow access to all parts of the cage. This prevents the animal from tangling the chain about the tubing which forms a perch within the cage. It is also necessary to provide a swivel joint on the chain at the point of attachment to the collar, otherwise the animal's twisting the chain can shorten it to the point of strangulation.
IN MANYexperiments using macaques or larger monkeys it is necessary to restrain the animal during daily testing procedures. To capture a free monkey and place it in a restraining device is difficult, is disturbing to the animal, and presents a recurrent danger to the experimenter or technician. This problem is often avoided by keeping monkeys permanently restrained in primate chairs [1, 2, 3]. The following describes an alternative procedure which has been used successfully in this laboratory for more than one year. It allows the animal much more freedom during nonexperimental time, yet daily capture and restraint presents very little hazard. The basic features of this method are: (a) the monkeys are housed individually in cages (Actor Sheet Metal Works, 7757 S. Chicago Ave., Chicago, Ill.), each with a chain attached to its neck; (b) when it is time to test the animal, a specially-designed restraining chair (Friday Sheet Metal Works, 779 Maple Street, Rochester, N.Y.) (Figs. 1, 2) is affixed to the front of the cage and the animal is pulled into the chair by means of the chain. The method is an elaboration of a system used by Drs. M. Levitt and C. J. Vierck at the University of Pennsylvania. Figure 1 is a general view of the chair, its head cover, and sliding collar. In Fig. 2 the head cover has been attached to the top of the chair, and the chair locked in place in the doorway of the cage. The chair is held to the cage by a lower lip which engages the lower edge of the door channel, and by an upper channel which is fixed by the guillotine door of the cage. The chain from the monkey has previously been passed through the hole in the rear of the chair as shown. That
~Supported by grants NB03606 and 5T1-NB-4)5395 from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness, NIH, U.S. Public Health Service. sU.S. Public Health Service Postdoctoral Fellow 5-F2-MH-34,024. SFellow of Fund~ac~_ode Amparo/t Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo, Brasil. On leave from: Faculdade de Medicina, Depertmento de Fisiologia, Site Paulo, S. P. Brasil. 431
432
GLASSMAN, NEGR~O AND DOTY REFERENCES
1. Doty, R. W. Conditkm~ reflexes elicited by ~ stimulation of the brain in ~ . 1. Ne~oplo,stol. S : 623--640, 1965. 2. Lilly, J. C. Development of a double-table-chair method of
monkeys for .physiological
and psychological
J. appl. Physiol. 12: I ~ 1 3 6 , 1958. 3. Mason, J. W. Restraining chair for the vxperimental study of primates. Y. appl. PhysloL 12: I30-133, 1958.
FIG. 1. View of the major pieces of the restraining chair. Note that the collar slants at 45 ° with respect to the back, thus allowing for natural position of the animal's head and chin.
( facing page 432)
FIG. 2. Chair in place on cage during capture of monkey.
BRIEF COMMUNICATION A Safe and Reliable Method for Temporary Restraint of Monkeys' R O B E R T B. G L A S S M A N , 2 N U B I O N E G R h , O a A N D R O B E R T W. D O T Y
Center for Brain Research, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627 (Received 26 December 1968)
GLA~MAN, R. B., N. NF_.ORJ[OAND R. W. DorY. A safe and reliable methodfor temporary restraint of monkeys. PHYSIOL. BEHAV.4 (3) 431-432, 1969.--A procedure is described by which macaques can be easily and safely put into primate restraining chairs. When needed, the chair is attached to the cage door and the animal pulled into it by a chained collar. Monkeys
Restraint
Animal handling
Safety
portion of the chain which is around the animal's neck is covered with heavy plastic tubing to prevent chafing or discomfort to the animal. When the slack has been taken up on the chain, Le., when the monkey has been drawn securely against the rear portion of the collar in the chair, the chain is locked or held firmly in place, the chair removed, and the front collar-piece secured in place by two heavy pins. Within a week or two the animals learn to accommodate themselves to this procedure without undue struggling. With animals that offer violent resistance at first, it is more convenient to draw the chain through the hole in the head cover so as to prevent the animal getting its jaw beneath the sliding collar. So long as the head is held firmly at the back of the chair restraint can be accomplished safely. When it is desirable to prevent the animal's rotating itself in the chair, the legs are held by straps bolted to the side of the chair. For use with animals bearing chronically implanted electrodes the upper portion of the cage has been made of rather fine mesh material and free of interior protrusions where the animal might obtain purchase to pry loose the electrode assembly. It is important that the animal when free within the cage be given only a sufficient length of chain to allow access to all parts of the cage. This prevents the animal from tangling the chain about the tubing which forms a perch within the cage. It is also necessary to provide a swivel joint on the chain at the point of attachment to the collar, otherwise the animal's twisting the chain can shorten it to the point of strangulation.
IN MANYexperiments using macaques or larger monkeys it is necessary to restrain the animal during daily testing procedures. To capture a free monkey and place it in a restraining device is difficult, is disturbing to the animal, and presents a recurrent danger to the experimenter or technician. This problem is often avoided by keeping monkeys permanently restrained in primate chairs [1, 2, 3]. The following describes an alternative procedure which has been used successfully in this laboratory for more than one year. It allows the animal much more freedom during nonexperimental time, yet daily capture and restraint presents very little hazard. The basic features of this method are: (a) the monkeys are housed individually in cages (Actor Sheet Metal Works, 7757 S. Chicago Ave., Chicago, Ill.), each with a chain attached to its neck; (b) when it is time to test the animal, a specially-designed restraining chair (Friday Sheet Metal Works, 779 Maple Street, Rochester, N.Y.) (Figs. 1, 2) is affixed to the front of the cage and the animal is pulled into the chair by means of the chain. The method is an elaboration of a system used by Drs. M. Levitt and C. J. Vierck at the University of Pennsylvania. Figure 1 is a general view of the chair, its head cover, and sliding collar. In Fig. 2 the head cover has been attached to the top of the chair, and the chair locked in place in the doorway of the cage. The chair is held to the cage by a lower lip which engages the lower edge of the door channel, and by an upper channel which is fixed by the guillotine door of the cage. The chain from the monkey has previously been passed through the hole in the rear of the chair as shown. That
~Supported by grants NB03606 and 5T1-NB-4)5395 from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness, NIH, U.S. Public Health Service. sU.S. Public Health Service Postdoctoral Fellow 5-F2-MH-34,024. SFellow of Fund~ac~_ode Amparo/t Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo, Brasil. On leave from: Faculdade de Medicina, Depertmento de Fisiologia, Site Paulo, S. P. Brasil. 431
432
GLASSMAN, NEGR~O AND DOTY REFERENCES
1. Doty, R. W. Conditkm~ reflexes elicited by ~ stimulation of the brain in ~ . 1. Ne~oplo,stol. S : 623--640, 1965. 2. Lilly, J. C. Development of a double-table-chair method of
monkeys for .physiological
and psychological
J. appl. Physiol. 12: I ~ 1 3 6 , 1958. 3. Mason, J. W. Restraining chair for the vxperimental study of primates. Y. appl. PhysloL 12: I30-133, 1958.
FIG. 1. View of the major pieces of the restraining chair. Note that the collar slants at 45 ° with respect to the back, thus allowing for natural position of the animal's head and chin.
( facing page 432)
FIG. 2. Chair in place on cage during capture of monkey.