“Therefore, after careful review of existing chimpanzee resources, NCRR [National Center for Research Resources] has determined that it does not have the financial resources to support the breeding of chimpanzees that are owned or supported by NCRR.”  Read more (National Institutes of Health Official Website)

Thanks in part to efforts by Project R&R supporters, the National Center for Research Resources (one of the 27 Institutes/Centers of the National Institutes of Health, NIH) has announced that:

“…after careful review of existing chimpanzee resources, NCRR has determined that it does not have the financial resources to support the breeding of chimpanzees that are owned or supported by NCRR.”

The agenda of today’s (May 22nd) NCRR meeting included consideration of whether or not to lift the voluntary breeding moratorium in place since 1995 on NCRR-owned and supported chimpanzees. The decision came on the heels of work by Project R&R’s Advisory Board and supporters to permanently end the breeding of chimpanzees. Project R&R generated thousands of emails and letters to Barbara Alving, MD, NCRR Director.

“We applaud this decision by NCRR,” says Dr. Theodora Capaldo, director of Project R&R. “It potentially spares hundreds of chimpanzees from being born and living their entire lives in laboratory confinement and use. To those who remain in labs, our committment to their release and restitution is infused with new optimism.”

More Information
Wording of NCRR’s decision
Working groups recommendations

Emory University’s Yerkes Primate Research Center has been awarded a $10 million federal grant to compare how mental abilities decline in aging humans, chimpanzees and rhesus macaques. Read more (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Read Project R&R’s Letter-to-the-Editor

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Read “A Brief Overview of Chimpanzees and Aging Research”
See a summary of Yerkes Primate Center’s USDA violations
Take action for Wenka and other Elder chimpanzees
Read more about the 2004 death of chimpanzee Dover at Yerkes