greetings, please look here for the minimum guidelines for the housing of primates in laboratories:
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_welfare/downloads/Animal%20Care%20Blue%20Book%20-%202013%20-%20FINAL.pdf
just so you know what you will be getting in to. ...page 99 shows the primate housing regulations.
in my opinion, the guidelines are inadequate for the monkey species - they are smart and we are testing on them because they are similar to us, so it stands to reason that the small cages would cause abnormal behaviors and injury. We tried to improve it through enrichment, etc, but there were injuries at least once per week - with 90+ monkeys.
In the lab I worked in, I tried to bring about change to improve the welfare of the monkeys and create a retirement program to retire them whenever possible into primate sanctuaries (because other labs were actually retiring their monkeys, but in our lab it was deemed activism :/ ). Because I tried to improve things, I was labeled an activist, told I was no longer trusted, and told I would not be given a good recommendation. After five years of service to the lab, my career was ruined in about 3 months.
If you care about the animals, it affects your sleep, your life, everything, and if you dare to speak up to improve things, you run the risk of getting your career ruined.
that being said, animal research needs more caring individuals, so get in, get your experience, and get out before you become labeled would be my advice - or look up the nearest primate sanctuary near you through NAPSA and see if you can go that route.
if you are in to helping primates, then may be best off in a zoo or sanctuary environment. just my two cents.
good luck.
