Most people aren't aware of the toture that those Chimpanzees who reside in Biomedical Research facilities undergo each day. This is no surprise or no mistake that the public isn't informed - this is highly intentional and strategic. If the public was aware of this situation, many would not support it and further would be utterly repulsed by such experimentation. There are countless experiments being performed on these innocent victims as we speak.
Experimentation on Chimps is unethical, consider all of their "human emotions" and "parallels," displays of emotions, and what humans consider to be culture - they possess these traits too. Chimpanzees are sentient, self-aware, empathetic, intelligent and social beings, just like us. They make and use tools. They form loving bonds with family and friends, and they make war on their enemies. Wild chimpanzees communicate through vocalizations and gestures, and some captives have been taught to communicate in a human language, American Sign Language. Chimpanzees empathize with others, and have been known to risk their lives to save someone in danger. Orphaned chimpanzees are usually adopted by others in their social group, and bond with them as to a mother. Each free-living chimpanzee group has its own culture, which is passed down from one generation to the next. In so many ways, chimpanzees are like their human cousins.
Anyone who would perform experiments (like we do on Chimps) on a disadvantaged Human individual is acting unethically - despite the fact that let's say this individual is brain dead and incapable of functioning. Yet, cruel experimentation is performed on a very alert, very emotional, very concious Chimpanzee. Like us, they suffer greatly when imprisoned and tortured. An adult chimpanzee, raised in a normal environment, operates on the cognitive level of a small human child. Just as it would be wrong to experiment on a human child, it is wrong to experiment on a chimpanzee. In the last century, the Nazis performed medical research on Jewish humans, and a zoo in New York displayed a Pygmy human in a cage alongside the monkeys. Our own government experimented on its citizens, including retarded children, black men, and prisoners, without their knowledge or consent. Today we consider such treatment of ; humans appalling. Knowing what we know now about chimpanzees, it is no less appalling that we experiment on them and force them to entertainus.
We grant rights and priveleges to criminals who have committed the most horiffic of crimes - anyone who would perform experiments on these individuals would also be acting unethically. Yet cruel experimentation is performed on innocent Chimpanzees who have committed no crime and hurt no one whatsoever? This view of Chimpanzees as being Subhuman is wrong. Who are we to place these beings in cages in laboratories, in solitary confinement, in darkness, in uncomfortable settings, assigning a random number to them and not a name? Do Humans have this right to inflict such cruelty in the name of "science"?
For years, The Coulston Foundation, a (TCF), a large primate testing laboratory based in Alamogordo, NM, demonstrated a shocking trail of negligence, cruelty and abuse and was still allowed to operate. TCF was the largest colony of captive chimpanzees in the world, with 650 of these intelligent and complex animals under its control. The lab used chimps, monkeys and other animals in tests of chemicals, drugs and infectious diseases like AIDS and hepatitis. TCF's founder is Frederick Coulston, an 85-year old toxicologist with a long history of testing toxic chemicals and drugs on chimpanzees.; The U.S. Department of Agriculture has three times brought federal charges against TCF for violations of the Animal WelfareAct. These charges surpass just uncleanly conditions, several Chimps boiled to death when their cages reached over 140 degrees, another died when no water was supplied, and another female Chimp dies after carrying around a dead fetus for months. The conditions were atrocious. Despite numerous charges, TCF was never officially "shut down," Coulston simply ran out of finances just recently (September 2002) and these Chimps have since been rescued by Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care . Coulston was allowed to operate in these conditions since it's first violation in 1993 despite numerous charges. Why wasn't something done sooner?
There now exists 8 Federally Funded Regional Primate Centers, which means that our tax dollars support this "research."Many assume these facilities being "Federally Funded," protect the safety and well being of these creatures. Many also assume that the research being performed here is crucial to advancement. Read the research and draw your own conclusions about whether these experiments are necessary, and what have they done for Biomedicine.
Studies being performed at Wisconsin Regional Primate Center.
Studies being perormed at the New England Regional Primate Center.
There also exist many other research facilities which receive grants to torture thse wonderful beings, these facilities too perform numerous experimentation on these innocent victims. Read the research and draw your own conclusions about whether these experiments are necessary.
Other studies being performed: All the Studies
A Look at the Research -Is it Applicable & What have we REALLY learned?
Larry Byrd: A Lifetime totruring Great Apes & Monkeys
Scientists have been injecting Chimps with this virus since 1984. HIV does not reproduce well in the Chimp, compared to how it does reproduce in Humans. There are fundamental differences in the Chimp and Human Immune System and there exists cellular differences which poses as evidence that Chimps are not the ideal model for such tests. Now there exists thousands of AIDS infected Chimps, unwanted by experimenters and unable to be set free... We must support a NATIONAL SANCTUARY for RETIRED RESEARCH PRIMATES, as Rep James Greenwood is attempting to obtain with the help of Jane Goodall & others. Click here to sign the petition.
People feel they can't make a differencebecause just one voice can't help end this travesty. But everyone can make a difference with this cause, we need to be the voice that speaks out for those who don't have a voice.
Here's what YOU can do:
Write YOUR LEGISLATOR to STOP the cruelty Sample Letter included
(Don't know who to write? Find out HERE)
Write the Research Facilities and ask about the Chimps Conditions/tell them you oppose
Sign the Declaration on Great Apes Petition which is attemping to create a National Sanctuary for Chimps.
Purchase a Primate Freedom Tag, which belongs to an actual Primate being housed at a Research Facility.
Adopt a Chimpanzee or Donate to Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care.
Explore and Support these Organizations:
Jane Goodall
Coalition to End Primate Research
Great Ape Project (GAP)
Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care
Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI)
Stop the Illegal Slaughter of Chimps & Great Apes
Colaition to End Cimpanzee Experimentation in Europe
Great Ape Standing and Personhood (Grasp)
Stop Experimentation on &; Exploitation of Chimps (SSEC)
Laboratory Primate Advocacy Group
A List of Primate Sanctuaries
Fauna Foundation
Fred Astaire, a very dark colored uniquely handsome chimp in his late twenties, did not cope well in biomedical research. Years of research and being singly housed left him depressed and emotionally challenged to the point of exhibiting self-directed, destructive behaviors similar to those that can occur among institutionalized humans. On a regular basis, Fred would bite chunks out of his forearm. This caused him to need medication to reduce his anxiety. There were times when I would visit him that I couldn't even coax him to come to the front of the cage for a hello and a rub. He would just lie in the back of his tiny cage &; look at you, as if he had given up on life and humanity. Towards the end of my time working with him, Fred was moved to a brighter unit and out of the thick subway-grating cage with limited visibility that he was regularly housed in. His new caretaker and I tried to provide more social and physical contact for him through our visits as did one of our volunteers since he was still caged alone. Though the volunteer was only there a few times a month, her visits with Fred would last nearly one half hour. He started to respond. It seemed as if he was harming himself less. He even played a bit during some visits and began to solicit attention more often. We were hopeful that his medication could be reduced at some point. He needed more than just a "drive by" visit, which is what caretakers are often limited to due to their workload. Though most ofthe chimps there were singly housed, Fred was particularly fragile.I so wished that Fred Astaire would make it out to retirement somewhere. In a sanctuary, his problems could be worked with more intensely, progress could be made, and his preciousness could be appreciated. It's usually impossible to completely undo such psychological damage but delicate animals like Fred need to be given that chance to heal. But Fred Astaire did not dance his way into retirement; he ended up in yet another research facility -- the Coulston Foundation -- where hedied within two years.
For Pablo (1970-2001). Pablo Chimpanzee was born in Africa, spent some years in entertainment where his teeth were pulled and filed, was briefly at the University of Oklahoma where he was called P.B., then was sold to the Laboratory for Experimental Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP). Pablo's life in the lab was filled with anxiety. He was referred to as a 'hard core research animal' at LEMSIP. He never took a needle, and was darted for each of his 220 knockdowns. He was hysterical at the sight of medical equipment and would thrash around his cage and cause himself to hyperventilate.
He spent 6 years at the Buckshire Corporation and when he was returned to LEMSIP, he was injected with 10,000 times the infectious dose of HIV. He was retired to the Fauna Foundation sanctuary in Quebec, Canada when LEMSIP closed down in 1997. He never tested positive for HIV, but his use and abuse in the laboratory marked his body in other ways.
He died on October 6th, 2001 at 31 years of age. His internal body was riddled with adhesions, scars, and infection. The pathologist couldn't believe he had lived as long as he had.
Pablo lived for two things in life: food and friends. At Fauna he found both of these in plentitude and his last four years were spent eating, playing, and gazing at the female chimpanzees. He deserved so much more. We at Fauna will miss his giant lips, his throaty laugh, and his infectious foodgrunts.
This is dedicated in loving memory to Sonia Chimpanzee who was euthanized on June 5, 2001 at the age of 42, while in organ failure. Sonia was a gentle chimpanzee soul whose black face and silver back made her look like a small gorilla. She spent her final days in a 5x5x7 cage, instead of with er daughter and grandaughter who loved her dearly and may still wonder if she will ever return to them.
Life was not particularly kind to Sonia. Her early history is unclear. It is likely that she was captured as an infant in Africa in the late 1950s, ripped from the breast of her murdered mother. She spent some time in New Mexico, where she had a son whose fate is unknown. She was later transferred to Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center, where she lived out her existence inside concrete and steel,never knowing much about grass or trees. She had an easygoing personality, showing little hostility to the humans who forced this existence upon her.
Sonia is survived by her children Barbara, Amos, and Jonathon, and grandchildren Winston, Kevin, and Abby. She left an indelible mark on the hearts and minds of those who cared for her and we gain comfort from knowing that at least now, she is free.
