Bob Barker Funds Space for HIV-Infected Chimps

As I've often said, Bob Barker is a good man. From The Washington Post...Retired game-show host and animal rights advocate Bob Barker is opening a new area for five HIV-infected chimpanzees at a sanctuary in northwestern Louisiana. The former host of “The Price Is Right” donated $380,000 to create space at the Chimp Haven near Shreveport.

Chimpanzees Laugh Even When Something's NOT Funny

Apparently, they laugh to encourage social bonding. It's particularly poignant considering the earlier article we posted about how their meat is showing up in Britain.

Humans eating chimpanzees is akin to cannibalism, as far as I'm concerned.

Chimpanzee Meat Sold In British Black Market

Disgusting. Sometimes it's hard to read these stories. It makes one feel so helpless.

Save the Chimps Video with Anjelica Huston

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.

Happy Chimpanzees!

Here is a Thanksgiving video of the seven chimpanzees at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.

Very heartwarming.

Alamagordo Chimps Fate Still Uncertain

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

Silent Auction to Benefit Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

This is now one of my favorite organizations. The silent auction is set for October 1, 2010, and details are here.

You can donate too even if you can't attend the auction.

September 14th update - Auction is sold out! They are working on an online component that you can participate in. Good for them!

EU Bans Use of Great Apes in Animal Research

Some may disagree, but I think this is a huge victory. I wish we could do the same here in the US, but I highly doubt it...especially considering that Congress may go Republican in November.

From the AFP...

Europe banned the use of great apes in animal testing Wednesday as part of drastically tightened rules to scale back the number of animals used in scientific research.

After two years of heated debate on how to protect animal welfare without scuppering scientific research, the new limits, updating regulations from 1986, were adopted by the European Parliament despite objections from Green MEPs.

Under the new legislations, experiments on great apes such as chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans are to be banned and "strict" restrictions set on the use of primates in general.

Members of the 27-nation bloc, who are given two years to comply with the rules, also need "to ensure that whenever an alternative method is available, this is used instead of animal testing."

And they must work at "reducing levels of pain inflicted on animals."

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.

Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest is New Favorite!

I really like this place.

Chimpanzees Mourn Their Dead?

A couple of studies imply that chimpanzees may mourn their dead. I believe they do. I believe that great apes do have that capacity. I've read of the mountain gorillas in Virunga grieving over the loss of a silverback. Heck, even my cats visibly missed old Charlotte who died last August.

If you jump to the comments at the bottom, people took issue with the implication at the end of the article that Jane Goodall would somehow question this grieving behavior. This is because they quote some guy from the USC Jane Goodall Research Center who throws doubt on the premise. Commenters state that Jane Goodall herself witnessed mourning with the Gombe chimps.

I'm sure many will dismiss these studies regardless. It makes it even harder to subject chimps to experiments if you keep discovering these human similarities.

Humane Society Calls for Refuge for 9 Chimps

These chimps are currently at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s New Iberia Research Center. This is the same place that was nailed by a Humane Society undercover investigation. Videos showed mistreatment of the lab animals.

The Humane Society wants 9 chimps that are not being "used" as part of experiments to be released to a sanctuary. I just love the language used by the Research Center's spokesperson.

{Dr. Jeff Rowell, NIRC director, in an e-mail Wednesday} "said the nine remaining animals are being housed as a family group at the center with access to indoor-outdoor caging.

“The animals have not been and are not currently being accessed for biomedical research,” Rowell said."

"Accessed?" Interesting. Let's make this as clinical as possible. It's irrelevant that these chimpanzees share 98.6 percent of our DNA. They may as well be centrifuges or test tubes to these people.

VERY IMPORTANT POST! Humane Society Launches Whistleblowing Line for Chimpanzee Research

This is important. Pass it around.

From the Advertiser...

The Humane Society has launched a confidential whistleblower hotline for employees of chimpanzee research laboratories to anonymously report alleged abuses.

In the areas surrounding the seven remaining U.S. chimpanzee research laboratories, Humane Society newspaper advertisements and billboards urge anyone with information about poor treatment of chimpanzees or other animals in research facilities to call The HSUS’ confidential hotline: 1-866-293-HSUS.

Chimpanzees in Sanctuaries Reflect Widespread Smuggling

It makes sense. The chimpanzee population is decreasing in the wild, but their numbers are increasing in sanctuaries. There are more rescues because there is more smuggling.

Research shows this is what's happening in Cameroon.