Iranian Monkey into Space

Reportedly, the monkey returned safely from its flight into space.  Of course, this was reported by the Iranian State media so who knows what is true.

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.

University of Florida Must Relinguish Primate Records

This is good news, at least in my opinion.

Full article in the Gainesville Sun....

An Alachua County Circuit Court judge has ordered the University of Florida to provide an animal rights activist with records on primates involved in research.

Camille Marino of Wildwood, who founded the group Negotiation is Over, received the records last week. She said she plans to use them to continue a campaign against animal research at UF, which recently included the online posting of the layout of UF laboratories and university spokeswoman Janine Sikes's cellphone number.

“They could not do what they do if they didn't do it behind a wall of secrecy,” Marino said. “This is about tearing down that wall.”

Sikes received more than a dozen calls, including a death threat that UF police are investigating. She said UF resisted releasing the records out of concern about the safety of researchers.

Air Canada Feeling Pressure to Stop Shipping Lab Monkeys

I don't think it's likely that Air Canada is going to budge on this. Excerpted from the Montreal Gazette....

Animal-rights activists are urging Air Canada to stop shipping live monkeys and other animals destined for experimentation, saying the airline can change its tariff rules if it wants.

But the airline says it is legally obligated to accept the contentious cargo.

According to a legal opinion solicited by the Humane Society International Canada, Air Canada can set and amend the terms of its tariffs.

"In our opinion, Air Canada is not legally obligated to accept monkeys as cargo," said the opinion written by Lawyers for Animal Welfare.

PETA to Run Billboards Against the University of Washington's Animal Research

I live in Seattle and, while I don't always agree with PETA, I hate the UW's animal research practices. I don't believe these animals get the quality of care they deserve for the suffering they undergo. If you "humanize" the animal and grow attached, how can you conduct experiments on it? You have to objectify them and they suffer for it.

I'm glad PETA is drawing attention to this issue. On the other hand, I hope that the association of PETA with this issue doesn't backfire. They are so polarizing....

Cute Pictures from Mountain Gorilla Births in February

Twins born in February, a rare event! Here's the link to some cute pictures! Eerie how similar to humans they appear....

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.

Pam Anderson Urges End to India's Animal Testing

I don't always know how I personally feel about Pamela Anderson, but I can't argue with her (non-acting) work.

Her letter to the Indian research facility is pretty distressing. Sounds like she watched a harsh video. For the full story, go here to the Vancouver Sun.

Former Baywatch star and model Pamela Anderson has accused one of India's most prestigious research centres of animal cruelty, urging it to retire decades-old test monkeys and adopt humane practices.

Anderson, famous for slow-motion beach running scenes in the hit 1990s lifeguard TV show, wrote to R.C. Deka, director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) after watching a video allegedly exposing animal cruelty at the New Delhi centre.

"It broke my heart to see the suffering that is documented in the enclosed video", wrote Anderson, in a letter sent on behalf of People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

"But the animals suffering behind closed doors at AIIMS must endure this nightmare every day."

In the letter, Anderson said dozens of monkeys are kept in "cramped, barren, and rusty cages for years on end," and appealed for the release of one monkey she said had been suffering at the research facility for nearly 20 years.

The former Playboy model says she cried while viewing the video, and described workers "slamming" animals against their wire cages and "taunting" the monkeys by pretending to kick them.

Air Canada Criticized for Transporting Research Monkeys

Awful. For the full Toronto Star story, go here.

The arrival of 48 monkeys on a flight from China this weekend has brought Air Canada under fire for shipping primates destined for research laboratories, but the airline says it is obliged by federal law to accept monkeys as cargo.

A Pearson International Airport employee tipped off the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection that a shipment of monkeys destined for Montreal was being held at the Toronto airport after arriving from China on Saturday.

Sarah Kite, director of communications and special projects for the BUAV, said monkeys destined for research facilities are usually transported in cramped wooden crates in the plane’s cargo hold, where they can be subject to fluctuations in temperature, stopovers and in some cases long delays....

Air Canada is one of a small number of airlines that continues to transport these primates, Kite said. Under pressure from animal rights groups and the public, many airlines have banned the practice. British Airways, for example, has a policy of “not carrying live animals that are for use in any laboratory, or for experimentation or exploitation,” according to media liaison manager Sophie Greenyer.

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.

Ghoulish Primate Experiment in South Africa

Warning! This is just horrible and sick, sick, sick. It's at a vomit level with me. From news24.com...

Johannesburg - A Bloemfontein man received a criminal record on Friday for a "backyard experiment" on a pregnant monkey, the NSPCA said.

The NSPCA in November 2008 charged Jordaan for his "merciless treatment" of a heavily pregnant vervet monkey. He had severed her spinal cord to paralyse her for a "backyard experiment.

"She had been captured from the wild... in the opinion of the NSPCA because she had been pregnant and therefore 'of use' for the pitiless treatment."

She said the monkey's infant was removed by Caesarean section on October 31. The procedure to sever her spinal cord had been performed the same day.

This paralysed the monkey from the waist down and made her incontinent. Her cage was “cleaned” with a hosepipe....

Kotze said Jordaan had apparently doing "stem cell research" to help people walk again after a friend of his had been paralysed in an accident.

Jordaan allegedly submitted a research application to the University of the Free State, but its animal ethics committee rejected it. He was told to rewrite and resubmit it. He was not prepared to do so and said he would continue the research on his own, Kotze said.

NASA Suspends Radiation Experiments

Received this today from Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Excellent news!

We did it! For more than a year, we have worked to block NASA’s planned radiation experiments on live squirrel monkeys. We have just learned that the experiments have been cancelled. NASA has also announced its intention to “undertake a comprehensive review of the agency's current research and technology development plans to see how they align with the President's plan for human spaceflight,” the findings of which “will inform [its] decision making moving forward.”

NASA had planned to irradiate 30 live squirrel monkeys in a misguided attempt to learn the effects of deep-space radiation. Due to the basic anatomical, biological, and physiological differences between squirrel monkeys and humans, these experiments were destined to fail. PCRM has led the criticism of these experiments, working with members of Congress, former researchers, activists, and even a former NASA engineer who resigned her post in protest of this cruel and unnecessary use of animals.

Because of your hard work, these monkeys will not be irradiated or otherwise abused. Furthermore, we have sent a powerful message to all federal agencies that they must consider the interests of animals in the pursuit of research.

Another Research Company Accused of Animal Mistreatment

For the full story, go here to outsourcing-pharma.com...

Animal welfare watchdog group, Stop Animal Exploitation Now (SAEN), has released documents which, it claims, provide evidence that CRO MPI Research has been operating in violation of the US Animal Welfare Act.

The documents, disclosed to OutsourcingPharma.com by Executive Director of SAEN, Michael Budkie, are said to have been released anonymously from a past or present employee.

They include reports on 16 incidences of fractures received by primates and one swine during handling between 2007 and 2009. Six of the primates and the swine are reported to have been euthanised as a result.

An Animal Welfare Concern Report, which appears to have been written by an MPI Research employee in 2004, describes the ‘ongoing incidences of lacerated fingers, toes and tails that occur during the removal of animals from the home cages for study functions’.

Technicians’ lack of experience with primates and excessive workloads are some of the risk factors for incidences suggested by the anonymous employee.

Happy Chimpanzees!

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

Very heartwarming.

SRI Denies Access to the Humane Society

If the incident is insignificant, then why deny access?

From the San Jose Mercury News...

A Menlo Park research facility Monday refused to allow a humane society representative to check up on a monkey that bit a female lab worker the day before.

SRI International officials said the lab worker is OK and because their facility is under federal oversight, the Peninsula Humane Society doesn't have to be given access to its research animals.

"The worker ... received a very minor injury to the finger, was treated onsite by emergency response personnel and then at a local medical facility," SRI said in a statement released Monday. "The worker is fine and returned to work on Monday."

Because an animal bite occurred, Menlo Park police alerted the Peninsula Humane Society, which is under county contract to follow up on such incidents. The organization is supposed to check whether an animal that bites a human poses a continued threat, is vaccinated for such diseases as rabies, and might need to be quarantined, said John Conley, deputy director of public health for San Mateo County.

....The humane society was rebuffed twice by the research facility, first on Sunday after the incident was reported and again on Monday when it sent a representative to see the monkey.

NASA May End Monkey Radiation Experiments

Not sure yet, but it could happen per this action alert from Physicians for Responsible Medicine.

Harvard Medical School Facility Accused of Improper Research Reporting

Sounds awful. Again, work by SAEN (Stop Animal Exploitation Now.)

From the MetroWest Daily News...

An Ohio-based animal rights organization has filed a complaint against Harvard Medical School, alleging that the school's New England Primate Research Center in Southborough did not properly report its experiments on animals.

The federal Animal Welfare Act requires the facility to report experiments involving the use of animals that receive "unrelieved pain or distress" and explain why it did not administer pain relievers, said Michael Budkie, co-founder of Stop Animal Exploitation Now in Milford, Ohio.

Two Harvard research projects allow primates to experience unrelieved pain - one subjects them to electric shock and one purposely stresses animals who have already been diagnosed with self-injurious behavior, according to the complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which enforces the Animal Welfare Act.

Harvard Medical School has not listed those primates as receiving unrelieved pain or distress, Budkie said.

The school has not listed any non-human primates in this category from 2005 to 2009, according to the complaint.

Tensions Mount over University of Florida Animal Research

Things are getting a little tense. Not sure I agree with posting the researcher's photo. Wonder if that could get activists into trouble under AETA (Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.)

This is a long article from the Gainesville Sun...

Animal rights activists are targeting a University of Florida researcher for his role in experiments on primates — even though he says he doesn't personally conduct animal research.

Wildwood-based activist Camille Marino runs the "Negotiation is Over!" website, where she posted the researcher's address and a picture of his home. She's accusing him of being a "monkey mutilator" and plans protests with other animal-rights activists at the UF football game today and at the researcher's neighborhood in the coming weeks.

Investigation Demanded for Southwest Lab

Stop Animal Exploitation Now! (SAEN) is calling for an investigation of Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, TX.

SAEN says previous USDA reports revealed primates have died at the Texas lab from dehydration and hypothermia, while others have simply been "found dead" -- possibly without veterinary care -- after suffering from serious disease conditions that include temperatures up to 105 degrees.

Documents show discrepancies in reporting to two different regulatory agencies, suggesting fraud within the lab, SAEN claims.