Good News for the Alamagordo Chimps!

I received an alert from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. The Alamagordo chimps will be allowed to remain in New Mexico for about two years while the NIH studies the issue of their transference. This gives animal rights activists some time to prepare further defense of the animals.

Good way to end 2010.

Here's the story as reported in NewsWest...

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (AP) - Some 186 chimpanzees will remain at a federal facility in New Mexico for now.

The Albuquerque Journal reported in a copyright story Friday that the National Institutes of Health informed Gov. Bill Richardson on Thursday the chimps will not be transferred to a San Antonio, Texas, facility until the National Academy of Sciences reviews policies on using chimpanzees in biomedical research.

Richardson spokeswoman Alarie Ray-Garcia says that's expected to postpone the transfer for about two years.

A federal contract covering the chimps expires next year. The NIH proposed sending them to Texas to be used in research aimed at finding a hepatitis C vaccine.

Animal welfare activists protested the transfer.

The chimps have been free from testing at the Alamogordo Primate Facility at Holloman Air Force Base since 2001.

Alamagordo Chimps Fate Still Uncertain

Here's the latest I could find...still no real news.

Almagordo Chimp Story Hits the Los Angeles Times

Story continues to gain media attention.

Almagordo Chimp Story Hits the New York Times

Here's hoping this poignant story will stir more public outrage and pressure on the NIH. These aging chimps deserve to retire permanently and NOT be subjected to more medical research.

Help the Almagordo Chimpanzees

Here's an action alert from Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

"Since 2001, chimpanzees have been housed at APF, where they cannot be used for research. However, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) plans to move the chimpanzees—many of them at least 30 years old—to the Southwest National Primate Research Facility in San Antonio, Texas, where they can be used in painful, invasive experiments."

PETA Enters Alamagordo Primate Controversy

Here's an opinion piece from Ingrid Newkirk arguing to stop the transfer of 202 "retired" chimpanzees to a Texas facility where they may be subjected to more experimentation. The Governor of New Mexico has already met with the National Institutes of Health to try and stop this transfer with no apparent success.

Some of the animals are 60 years old and veterans of the US space program.

University of Arizona Gets Grant for Animal Lab

Another Arizona story! They are certainly on the animal research kick.

From the Arizona Daily Star...

The University of Arizona College of Medicine won a $15 million federal stimulus grant to build a facility for research animals in downtown Phoenix.

The grant from the National Institutes of Health will cover the building cost.

About 33 researchers and staff members will work in the 22,000-square-foot research facility. It will be located next to the planned health sciences education building at the Phoenix Biomedical Campus.

The building will be "green" with recycling, energy efficiency, reduced water use and sustainable site and open-space plans.