A Decisive Move to Ban Research on Great Apes
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The Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance and Protection ("CHIMP") Act, 42 USCS § 287a-3a guarantees life time sanctuary and care to chimpanzees owned by the federal government but no longer needed for research. The Act provides for a system of sanctuaries, retirement facilities, if you will, for all chimpanzees "used, or ...bred or purchased for use" for use in research "conducted or supported" by the federal government.
Chimpanzees that are owned by some other company or organization can also be accepted into the federal sanctuary system for a fee and if there is sufficient space.
Retired chimpanzees may not be used for studies or research, except noninvasive behavioral or medical studies that rely on information collected during the course of normal veterinary care. Any such study can involve only "minimal physical and mental harm, pain, distress, and disturbance to the chimpanzee and the social group in which the chimpanzee lives."
The chimps cannot be euthanized unless it is in their best interest. The Act provides for standards for care of the retired animals.
Chimp Haven runs the federal government's sanctuary system for these animals.
Click here for a copy of the CHIMP Act.
Great Ape Protection Act
Now, another step in the effort to help chimpanzees and other great apes trapped in the horrors of animal research: The Great Ape Protection Act, H.R. 5852, has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. This bill would end invasive research and testing on great apes which include chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, orangutans, and gibbons.
Specifically, the bill would ban "invasive research" on great apes. No federal funds could be used for invasive research on great apes. No one could breed great apes for use in invasive research. No one could "knowingly import, export, transport, move, deliver, receive, possess, rent, loan, purchase, or sell a great ape" for invasive research.
The term "invasive research" means causing "death, bodily injury, pain, distress, fear, injury, or trauma" including from (1) "testing of any drug or intentional exposure to a substance that may be detrimental to the health" of the animal; (2) "penetrating or cutting the body or removing body parts, restraining, tranquilizing, or anesthetizing" the animal; or (3)"isolation, social deprivation, or other experimental physical manipulations that may be detrimental to the health or psychological well-being" of the animals.
About 1200 chimpanzees are currently used for research and testing. The U.S. uses more chimpanzees for research and testing than any other country. The cost to the taxpayer is estimated to be $20 - 25 million per year. Yet using animals for research and testing is outmoded, replaced in many places with more accurate computer models. Great Britain, Sweden, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Austria and Japan have either banned or limited the use of these animals for research and testing.
The bill requires the permanent retirement of all great apes currently owned or controlled by the federal government for invasive research. The bill states, "Care in a research laboratory for a single great ape over the lifespan of the great ape of more than 50 years can cost between $300,000 and $500,000, compared to an approximate cost of $275,000 for high quality care in a sanctuary."
A number of U.S. representatives introduced the bill: U.S. Representatives Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), David Reichert (R-Wash.), Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), and Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), along with Bruce Braley (D-Iowa), Tom Allen (D-Maine), John Campbell (R-Calif.) and Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) also as cosponsors.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Click here to find U.S. representatives. Write or call and urge them to support this important bill. Click here to write your representative and call on him or her to support an end to cruel research and testing on apes. Urge your representative to support H.R. 5852.
Click here for a copy of the bill.
Visit http://www.againstprimateexperiments.com/ for more information.