Who’s living behind the bars? What are the names, lab ID numbers, ages, genders, and other identifying information of all the chimpanzees held today in U.S. labs? WHO’S THERE? is a campaign designed to find out – with your help.

We’re asking for your signature to demand that laboratories holding federally funded chimpanzees release their names, ages, and other crucial information. Project R&R has made formal requests, but as of February 2006 most labs are ignoring or dismissing those requests.

Your tax dollars demand an answer.

Project R&R has sent FOIA requests regarding all federally funded chimpanzees – including those at Chimp Haven, a facility for “retired” chimpanzees that receives 75% of its operating costs from the federal government.

To date, only three labs have provided updated information on their residents: Alamogordo Primate Facility, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and the Centers for Disease Control.

Preparing a current census of chimpanzees in U.S. research facilities is going to take the work of every one of us. This data along with information provided by Project R&R sources will help us identify individual chimpanzees in most need of immediate rescue.  Research facilities cannot get away with moving chimpanzees from lab to lab, hiding the whereabouts of any one of them, and continuing to treat them like expendable commodities.  

HOW TO HELP: Sign the Who’s There Letter to demand that laboratories comply with federal disclosure laws. Even in the specific situations where technicalities and loopholes may allow labs to withhold information, the public and chimpanzees deserve better.

See existing Who’s There lists for each lab. (Click on the profile for each lab and open the Who’s There Excel chart)

Boston, MA – September 5, 2006 ― While the American public believes that chimpanzees used for research for more than ten years should be retired, 12 elder chimpanzees have remained in U.S. laboratories for 40 to more than 50 years. Today, the advisory board of Project R&R: Release and Restitution for Chimpanzees in U.S. Labs, called upon three labs to release these 12 elders immediately into sanctuary to live out their remaining years.

“The numbers are staggering,” says Theodora Capaldo, EdD, president of the New England Anti-Vivisection Society (NEAVS), which is spearheading Project R&R. “Fifty-four years, 52 years, 48 years … these are just some of the ages of the chimpanzees born in the 1950s who have been and continue to be used by laboratories.”

Made up of some of the world’s most renowned and esteemed chimpanzee experts, Project R&R’s advisory board sent an official request by certified mail to each of the three facilities that hold the elders, as well as to the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Many of the elders were used in multiple research protocols, a common hardship for chimpanzees in laboratories. All of the facilities receive NIH funding from taxpayer dollars.

Project R&R advisory board signatories include: Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE, Founder, Jane Goodall Institute and U.N. Messenger of Peace; Roger Fouts, PhD and Deborah Fouts, MS, Friends of Washoe; Gloria Grow, Founder, Fauna Foundation; Carole Noon, PhD, Founder, Save the Chimps; and others.

A recent independent public opinion survey revealed that 71% of the American public believes that a chimpanzee used for more than 10 years in research should be retired. Approximately 90% of the some 1,200 chimpanzees in U.S. labs have been there for 10 years or more. Seven countries have banned or limited the use of great apes in research.

Contact: Karen Smith
617-523-6020 ext. 17
617-413-0611 cell
E-mail: ksmith@neavs.org
URL: http://www.releasechimps.org