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.

Write to Your Congressional Representatives to Help the Almagordo Chimps

Here is the text we sent to Congressman Jim McDermott and Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray. It's based on the suggested text we saw on the web site for Physicians for Responsible Medicine.

Dear Senator Murray,

I have read articles in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times about the chimpanzees at Holloman Air Force Base. I am deeply troubled and angry that the National Institute of Health wants to move almost 200 chimpanzees from this facility to a laboratory in Texas where they may be subjected to testing.

Please ensure that the chimpanzees stay in Alamogordo. These highly intelligent animals should be PERMANENTLY retired and a PERMANENT sanctuary created for them.

This is a matter of human compassion to prevent the further suffering of animals that have already served this species in prior experiments. They deserve better and we are capable of providing them with better.

Sincerely,

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.

New Mexico Governor Opposes Chimp Transfer

From the AP...

Gov. Bill Richardson is asking to tour a former medical research lab in southern New Mexico that houses more than 200 chimpanzees.

Richardson made the comment Tuesday after meeting in Bethesda, Md. with officials of the National Institutes of Health, which contracts with a private company to care for the chimps.

The contract expires next year and Richardson opposes a plan by the agency to transfer the chimps from the Alamogordo Primate Facility, where they are no longer used for medical testing.

Richardson said NIH appeared to be "holding steadfast" to its plan and he vowed to continue opposing it. The animals can be used again for medical experiments if transferred to the Southwest National Primate Research Center in San Antonio, Texas.