Primate Welfare

Project R&R Responds to Tragic Shooting with
Demand that No More Chimpanzees be Transferred

March 17th, 2008 - Following last Wednesday’s tragic shooting of Tony, an 18-year-old chimpanzee who escaped from an enclosure at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Facility in Bastrop, Texas, Project R&R is demanding a full and independent investigation and that the transfer of more chimpanzees from the Primate Foundation of Arizona to Bastrop, scheduled for this spring, be halted.
Project R&R sent its request to NCRR (National Center for Research Resources), the arm of NIH responsible for “provid[ing] access to critical animal models.”
The letter notes, “We believe NCRR has a responsibility as well [as USDA], even if not the immediate inspecting agency.” NCRR has been important in setting policy and guidelines for chimpanzees and recently decided to end federal funding for breeding. It is a federal agency with much power and authority over the fate of chimpanzees in U.S. laboratories.

According to the AP reports, a team tried to capture Tony for approximately 45 minutes. They used "at least one tranquilizer dart" before a police officer fatally shot him. Notes Theodora Capaldo, Ed.D., Project R&R Director, “Bastrop must account for why Tony not only was able to escape – on the heels of very recent other escapes – but  also whether or not their escape and shoot to kill threshold were followed or violated.” Read more...

According to other newspaper reports, this was the second time in five months that chimpanzees had escaped from the Michale E. Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine and Research. In November, a 17-year-old chimpanzee named Jake escaped along with two other chimpanzees who were all returned safely.
Tony, who would have turned 19 on June 12th, was one of approximately 160 chimpanzees who are currently held for research at the Center.
Read more about M.D. Anderson, including listings of the remaining chimpanzees and government grants.

What you can do:
Project R&R encourages the public to write letters to both NCRR and M.D. Anderson politely asking that no new chimpanzees be transferred until there is a complete and independent investigation and the facility is escape-free for a minimum of one year.
NCRR                                    
Barbara Alving, M.D.
Director, NCRR
National Center for Research Resources
31 Center Drive, Suite 3B11, MSC 2128
Bethesda, MD 20892-2128
    
John Mendelsohn, M.D.
President, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
1515 Holcombe Boulevard
Box 194
Houston, Texas 77030
Visit http://www.releasechimps.org/take-action/ to learn about other ways you can help chimpanzees in research.

Source: Project R&R http://www.releasechimps.org/

Tributes to Stella Brewer Marsden

http://www.chimprehab.com/memorial/tributes.html

There are also lots of lovely photos of Stella,
the first person to establish a chimpanzee
sanctuary in Africa. She was based in The Gambia.
Stella was a true trailblazer and her project lives on.

Action Alert:

Help End the Breeding of Chimpanzees for Research

Between 1,200 and 1,300 chimpanzees are currently living out their lives in U.S. laboratories. These highly intelligent creatures possess complex mental abilities, including self-awareness, anticipation of future events, mathematical skills, tool use, and acquisition of languages created by humans.

Even though they are our "closest cousins," results obtained from chimp research do not always translate accurately to humans. Today, methods are being developed that allow scientists to rely on alternatives such as human tissue and cell cultures instead of testing on chimpanzees. If the biomedical industry stopped using chimpanzees, both research quality and chimpanzee welfare would improve, and taxpayers (whose dollars support the animals' care) would see the benefits. Help protect chimpanzees by making the current breeding ban permanent.

TAKE ACTION

In 1995, the U.S. National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) put a temporary moratorium on breeding government-owned and supported chimpanzees for research. It was most recently renewed until the end of 2007, and on May 22 will come up for discussion again. Please take a moment now to urge the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) to not only extend the moratorium beyond 2007, but to adopt this moratorium permanently, and end the breeding of research chimps altogether.

Source: http://www.api4animals.org/index2.php

Action Alert:

Help Us Save Karla

Sad Karla, alone and beaten…
ADI Field Officers working undercover in an animal circus witnessed some of the most sickening scenes they have ever encountered when a female chimpanzee, called Karla, was punched in the face and beaten with a chain by her trainer.
The footage is part of a major undercover investigation by ADI of animal circuses in Colombia. An ADI Field Officer working at Circo Africa de Fieras also filmed a llama and pony being abused at the same circus. Click on link for more info: http://www.ad-international.org/animals_in_entertainment/go.php?id=727&ssi=10

Source: http://www.ad-international.org/home/

Action Alert:

Object to the Use of Chimps in Commercials

Published 03/21/07

On television and its website, Suburban Auto Group has used promotional advertisements involving chimpanzees. This is part of its “Trunk Monkey” marketing gimmick. In most of the videos, a chimpanzee is depicted as being a “protector” for the person involved and is shown “hitting” a “transgressor” with a lug wrench, bribing a policeman, threatening to shoot someone with a rifle, and so forth. You can work with API to help end Suburban Auto Group’s use of chimpanzees in its commercials by taking a moment to let it know that you do not agree with its exploitive use of primates for entertainment and profit.

Please write a polite letter to the general manager of Suburban Chevrolet and Ford, pointing out that using chimpanzees in this manner is inappropriate, and encouraging him to discontinue this promotion. You will find talking points to help customize your letters below.

Letters can be sent to:
General Manager
Suburban Chevrolet and Ford
37000 Highway 26
Sandy, OR 97055
To view the videos, click here. Depending on your connection speed, it may take some time for the video to start after you click on one of the video choices.

Talking Points

• Primates have specific behavioral, emotional, and physical needs. Captivity cannot ever provide for all the needs and desires of chimpanzees or other exotic and wild animals.
• Forcing chimpanzees to perform tricks for profit or amusement is degrading to the individuals involved.
• The future of chimpanzees and other exotic animals used in the entertainment industry is uncertain once the individual is no longer deemed “useful” or profitable to the industry. Many of them are left to languish in deplorable conditions, or are abandoned or killed.
• Portraying chimpanzees as in the Trunk Monkey advertisements promotes the use of chimps and other exotic animals in similar situations. It also fosters the belief that it is somehow okay to treat animals in this manner by those who may not think more deeply about the situations experienced by these animals.
• By their very nature, exotic animals are unpredictable and are incapable of being domesticated or tamed. This means they will always be potentially dangerous to the people who come in direct contact with them.

For questions, or to let API know you took action, please contact info@api4animals.org.

Thanks for your help in protecting chimpanzees!

Source: Animal Protection Institute http://www.api4animals.org/actionalerts?p=1137&more=1

HELP STOP EXPERIMENTS ON MONKEYS - FOR GOOD

Click here for more information:
http://www.eceae.org/saveprimates/en/action.html

Donations Needed for our Friends in Sierra Leone!

http://www.gorilla-haven.org/ghdonationsfortacugama.htm

APNM Chimp Tag Program

This holiday season, APNM is offering its members a special opportunity to purchase chimpanzee freedom tags for just $15 each (with free shipping). Tags are available for each of the nearly 600 chimpanzees held captive by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at Holloman Air Force Base and Alamogordo-based Coulston Foundation (TCF).

Click here for more information: http://www.apnm.org/campaigns/chimps/chimp_tags.php

APPLES FOR APES

In the wild, fruit comprises about two-thirds of a chimpanzee's diet. The situation is very different behind bars.

STOP FEDERAL FUNDING OF CHIMPANZEE EXPERIMENTS

Your tax dollars make it possible for researchers to continue to use chimpanzees as furry test tubes for human diseases.

STOP THE SALE OF BABY CHIMPANZEES

Almost anyone can buy an infant chimpanzee, with virtually no questions asked - besides "show me the money." Serious national legislation is needed to end this lucrative slave trade.

Links to more things you can do:

Chimpanzee Collaboratory http://www.chimpcollaboratory.org/you/index.htm

NO MORE MONKEY BUSINESS http://www.nomoremonkeybusiness.com/whatYouCanDo.asp

Please Voice your concerns and support regarding opposition to Chimps in TV commercials

Please Take Action, Voice your concern and Voice your support:

http://www.chimpcollaboratory.org/you/prevalerts.htm

info@chimpcollaboratory.org

The Chimpanzee Collaboratory
227 Massachusetts Ave. NE (Suite 100)
Washington, DC 20002
(202) 546-1761

Anheuser-Busch, DDB Follow Cruel Trend of Exploiting Chimpanzees

Ad agency DDB Chicago has created a television commercial for Bud Light in which a chimpanzee depicted in a cage at a zoo steals a beer from a zoogoer and then taunts the man with it in retaliation for his having teased the chimpanzee with a banana.

Please contact Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Bud Light, and its advertising agency, DDB Chicago, to politely show your concern about the cruelty inherent in using great apes in entertainment. Be sure to point out that you won’t purchase Anheuser-Busch products until the companies agree not to use great apes in their future work:

Michael J. Owens
Vice President, Sales & Marketing
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.
1 Busch Pl.
St. Louis, MO 63118
1-800-342-5283
314-577-2900 (fax)
https://contactus.anheuser-busch.com/contactus/email.asp (e-mail)

Bob Scarpelli, Chair
DDB Chicago
200 E. Randolph St., #38
Chicago, IL 60601
312-552-6000
312-552-2370 (fax)

A giant "chimpanzee," along with activists, will demonstrate at the Sundance Film Festival to discourage the use of great apes in movies.

An activist dressed as a giant chimpanzee holding a sign that reads, "No, I Don't Want to Be in Your Damned Movie," accompanied by PETA activists holding signs that say, "Get Great Apes out of Movies," will protest at the famed Sundance Film Festival on Thursday, January 20.

PETA seeks to reach members of the film industry, including producers, directors, actors, and distributors at the festival to alert them to the cruelty inherent in using chimpanzees and orangutans in films.

Chimpanzee and orangutan experts agree that it is impossible to train these intelligent and sensitive animals without the use of force, fear, and intimidation. Trainers have been seen kicking, beating, and using electric-shock collars on the animals.

Around age 8, as they enter young adulthood, chimpanzees and orangutans become too strong for trainers to manage so they end up being warehoused or dumped at poorly run facilities, where they might live more than 50 years!

No humane agency monitors the traumatic separation of infants from mothers, the cruel training sessions and deplorable housing conditions, or the placement of animals once they are no longer useful to the industry.

Click here to find out what you can do. http://www.nomoremonkeybusiness.com/whatYouCanDo.asp

Source: PETA http://www.nomoremonkeybusiness.com/sundance.asp
Date: 01/20/05

For the first time in U.S. history, criminal charges for animal cruelty have been filed against an animal research laboratory for its operator's alleged institutional neglect and abandonment of chimpanzees.

The unprecedented complaint, filed by Otero County, New Mexico District Attorney Scot Key on September 7, alleges that negligence surrounding the deaths of the chimpanzees Rex and Ashley, and the near-death of Topsy, at the Alamogordo Primate Facility (APF) constitutes criminal animal cruelty. The APF, located on Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico, is owned by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is legally responsible for the day-to-day management of the lab.

The District Attorney’s investigation was prompted by IDA, which provided evidence from its network of whistleblowers. Named in the criminal complaint were NIH contractor Charles River Laboratories, Inc. and APF director and veterinarian Dr. Rick Lee.

If convicted, the defendants could face a maximum of almost three years in jail.

"These historic charges are a searing indictment of the NIH, which bears the ultimate responsibility for the conscious criminal negligence apparently committed against these defenseless chimpanzees," said IDA president Elliot M. Katz, DVM.

The NIH handpicked Charles River to operate the APF after IDA exposed negligence committed by the previous APF manager, The Coulston Foundation. We must redouble our efforts to end the injustice of biomedical experiments on chimpanzees.

IDA will not rest until experimentation on chimpanzees is permanently ended and the NIH is held accountable for its gross malfeasance and duplicity in its management of chimpanzee and other animal research programs.

See WHAT YOU CAN DO http://www.nihchimpcruelty.com/nih_whatyoucando.html to help.

Contact your elected representatives in Washington to express your outrage at the expenditure of our tax dollars on this alleged chimpanzee cruelty. Demand that the NIH immediately terminate all federal funding of Charles River Laboratories and immediately turn over custody of all chimpanzees on Holloman Air Force Base to a reputable, non-governmental sanctuary for permanent retirement.

U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510
See http://www.senate.gov for specific contact information for your Senators

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
See http://www.house.gov for specific contact information on your Congressperson

Contact New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid to thank her for helping to lead the effort to amend the state's animal cruelty statute to hold research institutions accountable for the treatment of animals in their laboratories. Tell Ms. Madrid you are aware that without her efforts, these historic charges against Charles River Laboratories for alleged cruelty to chimpanzees would not have been possible.

The Honorable Patricia Madrid
Attorney General - New Mexico
407 Galisteo Street
Bataan Memorial Building, Room 260
Santa Fe, NM 87501
Phone:(505) 827-6000
Fax: (505) 827-5826

Copyright 2004 In Defense of Animals

We dedicate this site and this campaign to the memory of Rex, Ashley and the countless others who have died while imprisoned in chimpanzee research labs, or been forced to live barren existences as "furry test tubes."

Click here to take voice your concern and support on various issues.

Following up on its previous chimpanzee flicks, MVP (Most Valuable Primate), MVP II, and MXP (Most Extreme Primate), Keystone Entertainment is set to release another film starring a chimpanzee child actor. According to the Spymate website, "Minkey, the kung-fu fighting, trapeze flying, mountain climbing chimpanzee and his [human] partner Mike go on a whirlwind adventure guaranteed to make you hoot!" In the movie, some of Minkey's stunts are performed by a digital double of the chimpanzee through the use of CGI (computer generated imagery). Unfortunately, Keystone still prefers to also use a real young chimpanzee in its films despite the obvious ready availability of a digital alternative.

Tell Keystone you won't watch its films until it stops exploiting chimpanzees:

Keystone Entertainment
films@keypics.com
23410 Civic Center Way, Suite E9, Malibu, CA 90265
Phone: (310) 317-4883
Fax: (310) 317-4903

or

300-2339 Columbia St, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5Y 3Y3
Phone: (604) 873-9739
Fax: (604) 873-5919

Several large corporations must have been sharing notes recently, as they’ve all begun using captive great apes like chimpanzees and orangutans in their advertising campaigns to promote everything from soft drinks to credit cards. In doing so, they are also promoting a cruel industry that rips baby animals away from their mothers and trains them to perform, using tactics such as electric shocks and beatings with steel bars wrapped in electrical tape. Chimpanzees and orangutans who are too old to perform are not given sanctuary, as the industry would like consumers to believe, but are sold to biomedical research facilities or to tawdry roadside attractions—ensuring continued suffering.

Click http://www.peta.org/feat/greatapes/jgoodall.html here to read Jane Goodall’s letter opposing the use of chimpanzees in advertising.

Click here to read PETA’s letter to the companies. http://www.peta.org/feat/greatapes/aletter.html

These companies are sadly out of touch with what today’s consumers want. Please call or write to them and voice your concerns about using animals. Let them know that you won’t use their products or services until they make the compassionate decision not to use animals in their promotions:

The Kellogg Company plans to use a chimpanzee named Charlie in the production of a series of commercials. Tell Kellogg that exploiting a chimpanzee isn’t the way to sell breakfast cereal:

Carlos M. Gutierrez
Chair, President & CEO
Kellogg Company
1 Kellogg Sq.
Battle Creek, MI 49016-3599
1-800-962-1413
269-961-2871 (fax)

A dedicated to the nonhuman primate friends LPAG members and other caregivers have lost in labs. Their names and lives should be recognized and they should be remembered for their unwilling servitude. We invite current and former lab personnel to submit a memorial in recognition of a nonhuman primate who lost their life because of biomedical research.

SOURCE: http://www.lpag.org/

Below is the text from an advertisement placed in a University of Wisconsin student newspaper, the Badger Herald (Thursday, Oct 3rd). If anyone is interested in the PDF version of the entire advertisement (with the photo) please email ari@hsus.org.

Is Animal Research at UW-Madison Really Pain Free?

UW-Madison reported to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for 1996-1998 that its researchers used nearly 400,000 animals in medical experiments and none experienced pain or distress¹.

In one case, rhesus monkeys exposed to the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus
(monkey AIDS virus) suffered from eventually fatal chronic diarrhea, severe weight loss, and anorexia. Another project involved restraining monkeys in chairs for 104 straight hours. Does it sound like these animals didn't experience any pain or distress?

In 2001, UW-Madison received approximately 280 government grants totaling $77 million to carry out research on dogs, cats, monkeys, rabbits, hamsters, and many other animals². Available grant information and research publications suggest that at least 40 percent of the grant projects on mammals involved pain and distress, making
UW-Madison's previous reporting on pain and distress questionable, at best.

Researchers at your university are either failing to file accurate reports or failing to recognize signs of pain and distress when they see them. It's that simple.

What you can do.

Officials have dismissed our concerns. Maybe they'll listen to you. Please contact President Lyall and Dr. Timothy Mulcahy, Chair of the UW-Madison's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. Ask them what UW-Madison is reporting to the USDA for the current year about pain and distress in research animals. If the university continues to claim that no animals have suffered pain and distress, ask how it can use so many animals without causing any. And ask what the university is doing to minimize pain and distress to laboratory animals during experiments, as required by the federal Animal Welfare Act. Contact:

Dr. Katherine C. Lyall, President
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1720 Linden Drive
Madison, WI 53706
klyall@uwsa.edu

Dr. Timothy Mulcahy, Chair, Institutional Animal Care and
Use Committee
University of Wisconsin-Madison 327 Bascom Hall 500 Lincoln Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1380 mulcahy@bascom.wisc.edu

And please share any replies that you receive with The Humane Society of
the United States. E-mail us at ari@hsus.org or call 301-258-3043 for more information.

UW-Madison is a great institution. But it can do better for the animals-and for you.

The Humane Society of the United States
2100 L Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037
202-452-1100 www.hsus.org/pd

These are the most recent years for which such information is available.
Current information on research funding is more readily available than USDA statistics.

The life that so-called "exotic pets" lead is far removed from that which they would experience in their natural habitat. Big cats, primates, and reptiles, for example, are not domestic animals, and their instincts remain very much intact in captivity. A life in a backyard, basement, or garage cage cannot even begin to meet these animals’ instinctual needs and desires, such as seeking a mate, raising young, hunting, basking in the sun, and resolving territorial disputes. Even simple but essential pleasures, like freedom of movement and the ability to socialize with others of their own kind, are often denied them altogether. Many exotic animals kept as pets develop psychotic behaviors resulting from a life of confinement, such as self-mutilation, head-bobbing, pacing, and coprophagia (playing with and eating excrement).

Most of these animals end up being shuffled from one facility or home to the next and often end up being sold to laboratories, where they undergo painful and invasive tests, or are forced to live in horrendous conditions in roadside zoos or curiosity displays. In fact, Davies aided in getting two squirrel monkeys, who were destined to live in a glass enclosure, to a bar in Hawaii. One of the monkeys, who was only 3 months old, died during shipment. Click here to learn how to help the monkey stuck in this bar.

Please ask Qwest Communications, which hosts Wild Animal World at two different locations, to drop the sites and set a policy against hosting sites that are used to sell animals. See sample letter.

Richard C. Notebaert, Chair and CEO
Qwest Communications International, Inc.
1801 California St.
Denver, CO 80202
Tel.: 800-899-7780
Fax: 303-992-1724

SOURCES: PETA

Learn about the Kumasi Zoo Chimpanzees!

Chico, a male chimpanzee, has been housed at Waccatee Zoo in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in a barren cement and iron-barred cage for nearly 20 years. PETA represented seven international animal protection organizations during a meeting with the zoo to try to secure Chico’s release from his loneliness and frustration. Unfortunately, the owners of Waccatee Zoo refuse to relocate the chimpanzee to an accredited sanctuary. World-renowned primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall has issued a statement denouncing the conditions in which Chico is living.

Dr. Goodall states: “I reviewed video footage that was taken at Waccatee Zoo in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I was quite shocked—and outraged—to see a chimpanzee in this horribly small cage in an environment absolutely without any kind of stimulation, no enrichment. Chico showed a number of aberrant behaviors—swaying from side to side and head-bobbing. It is my view that his [living] conditions are extremely cruel. He should be released from his prison, gradually introduced to other chimps, and given the space and enriched environment that he deserves.”

Please write to the owners of the Waccatee Zoo and ask them to release Chico to a sanctuary:

Archie and Kathleen Futrell, Owners
Waccatee Zoo
8500 Enterprise Rd.
Socastee, SC 29588

SOURCE: PETA 

More articles