US Friends, Please Help Save Chimpanzees from Invasive Experimentation!

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Urge the government to provide sanctuary instead of research:

Chimpanzees living at the Alamogordo Primate Facility (APF) on Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico are slated to go to any federal facility that wants to use them for research, according to the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), which oversees primate research.

The Air Force divested itself of its chimpanzee colony in 2000. Some of its chimpanzees were sent to research facilities, others to sanctuaries, but 200 remained when Charles River Laboratories took over the APF facility under a federal contract. The contract, which expires in 2011, includes a provision that Charles River not use the animals for invasive research. The federal government pays for their maintenance—or has up until this year.

This month the NCRR announced that it is planning to make these 200 chimpanzees available for invasive research when the contract expires in 2011.

According to Dr. Barbara Alving at the NCRR, “The animals must be moved to another facility to participate in research.” NCRR has already advertised the availability of these animals on their website, stating that they have authority to remove animals from the APF to other accredited chimpanzee facilities for research purposes.

While the government cites the high cost of providing for the chimpanzees under the contract with Charles River Laboratories, there are other options available, including placing the animals in a permanent sanctuary, such as Chimp Haven (which was established in 2000 for just this purpose) or other primate sanctuaries. While there is a cost involved in retiring these chimpanzees, it is less than the government is currently paying on the contract and would be a more humane and cost effective solution for animals who have already spent years in research laboratories.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is planning to move more than 200 chimpanzees living in New Mexico to Texas to possibly be used for invasive experimentation. These aging chimpanzees are not involved in active research protocols. They have been warehoused at the Alamogordo Primate Facility (APF) on Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico since 2001, where the federal government pays for their care.

The contract to care for these chimpanzees is about to expire and NIH is already planning to make them available for research. According to NIH’s National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), “The animals must be moved to another facility to participate in research.” NCRR has already advertised the availability of these animals on their website.

The only effective—and permanent—solution is to pass a law prohibiting invasive experimentation on Great Apes, which includes chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans, and gibbons.

The Great Ape Protection Act, H.R. 1326, which currently has 149 sponsors, has been held by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce since it was introduced in March 2009. Action must be taken to save these and hundreds of other chimpanzees from pain and stress in laboratories around the country.

Contact your U.S. Representative TODAY for aggressive support of this bill

***Please remember Charles River Laboratories has been cited for SCALDING and BOILING animals alive, these people are monsters!

• http://www.standard.net/topics/animals/2010/03/17/research-monkey-deaths-prompt-calls-crackdown
• http://monkeydaynews.blogspot.com/2008/08/32-lab-monkeys-accidentally-heated-to.html
• http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26079415/

Please click HERE to send automatic letter now.

(Please remember that after you select “Next Step” on the initial page after entering or making any letter or address revisions, you need to select “Send Message” on the subsequent page, thank you.)