A positive follow up to our recent story about Gorilla Biscuits/Civ/Token Entry bassist Arthur Smilios and his activism against the testing of chemical agents on vervet monkeys. According to a a Baltimore Sun report, the US military has decided to discontinue using the primates as part of Aberdeen Proving Ground's chemical casualty training courses. Smilios joined other activists from PETA in fighting the practices.

The facility was reportedly the last US base that tested on animals and had been injecting the monkeys with an overdose of physostigmine, a drug that simulates the effects of nerve-agent exposure, as part of some training exercises. The drug's effects include violent convulsions, seizures and vomiting and cause some monkeys to stop breathing, associate director of laboratory investigations for PETA Justin Goodman said Tuesday.