The buzz on summer blockbusters is starting, including Space Chimps, the computer-animated feature scheduled for release July 18th. The film, which is targeted to a family audience, revolves around two NASA chimpanzees who find themselves on an uncharted planet where they embark on a “fantastical” journey. (As of early June, reviews are not yet in as to the political correctness of the message.)
Just in time for the animation’s release is the newly released DVD documentary One Small Step: The Story of the Space Chimps, which tells the real story of the United States Air Force chimpanzees. It begins with their predecessors, monkeys, who were used in air and space research, and culminates in the early rocket tests that Ham and Enos were put through prior to their missions into space.
Using archival photos and footage, testimony from space historians, the chimpanzees’ trainers, and the people who fought for the space chimps’ retirement (Dr. Jane Goodall, Dr. Carole Noon), the film reveals the plight of and truth behind the lives of the 65 young and infant chimpanzees who the Air Force captured in Africa and brought to the US — beginning a major chapter in the long and ugly saga of decades of using chimpanzees in horrific experiments. The young “Air Force Chimps” were used in military flight experiments starting in the early 1950’s. As the “race to space” heated up, they were used as test subjects for space flight research.
The film weaves the story of human celebration during this time while challenging and begging the question: at what cost to the sacrificed chimpanzees and other animals?
One Small Step: The Story of the Space Chimps is a testament to a moment in U.S. history that includes an honest, moving and thought provoking examination of the use of chimpanzees in NASA’s space program and their subsequent abandonment into the hands of research laboratories.
Visit our online store: http://www.releasechimps.org/store/
May 28th, Belgium — World-renowned primate expert Dr. Jane Goodall and other scientists appealed to the European Union to end the use of animal testing in medical and other scientific research. “We need to recognize that what we do to animals from their perspective certainly, and probably from ours, is morally wrong and unacceptable,” Goodall said.
Presenting a petition bearing 150,000 names to the European Parliament, Goodall and others called on parliament and executive offices to find methods of testing that do not involve animals. Approximately 12 million animals are used each year in experiments across the EU.
Goodall revolutionized research on primates during the 1960s, documenting tool use, emotions and war in the chimpanzee groups she observed. Her studies make it clear that no sharp line can be drawn between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom. Goodall, acknowledged worldwide as the foremost chimpanzee expert, is a longtime campaigner for animal rights.
Source: Canadian Press
Dr. Jane Goodall is a member of the Project R&R Advisory Board.
Help rescue Wenka and 17 other Elder chimpanzees before time runs out.
Ask for their release from research labs and placement into permanent sanctuary.
Wenka is a frail 54-year-old chimpanzee, held at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta, who deserves the comfort of sanctuary before she dies. In captivity, chimpanzees can live up to 50-60 years (however, the average lifespan is between 30-45 years). Her time is running out.
Your immediate help is needed to secure Wenka’s release along with 17 other chimpanzees born between 1950 and 1960, who are still held at labs around the country.* Some have spent their entire lives in a laboratory enduring multiple procedures or being repeatedly “bred” to make more babies for research. Some were captured as infants in Africa.
The Chimpanzee Elders Who Need Our Help*
• Gwen, age 54 – New Iberia Research Center (deceased)
• Susie, age 52 – Primate Foundation of Arizona, AZ (deceased)
• Wenka, age 54 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Cheeta, age 51 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Lulu, age 51 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Maxine, age 51– Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Flo, age 51 – Alamogordo Primate Facility, NM (government owned)
• Harriet, age 49 – Primate Foundation of Arizona, AZ (deceased)
• Karen, age 50 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Billy Ray, age 49 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Guy, age 49 – Alamogordo Primate Facility, NM (government owned)
• Jake, age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA (deceased)
• Jenda, age 48 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA (deceased)
• Reba, age 48 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA (deceased)
• Boka, age 47 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA (deceased)
• Diana, age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Jan, age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Julius, age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Lady Bird, age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Pumpkin, age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Sandy, age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Walter B., age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Clay, age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Martha, age 48 - Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Mary, age 48 - Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
*Some labs have not responded to our requests for 2006-2008 information. Therefore, it is unknown if all the individuals listed above are still alive, have been transferred to other facilities, or if other elders exist.
You can change their fate and help make their remaining years a life of dignity and protection in sanctuary by clicking here to sign onto the Project R&R letter demanding their immediate release from the laboratories that currently hold them.
She was old and grateful for the small kindnesses,
like good fruit and sunshine.
–A former Yerkes lab worker’s recollection of Wenka
A former lab worker remembers Wenka vividly: “Her fingers were long and delicate, her palms fragile, and they seemed to perfectly represent her sweet and passive nature.” According to Project R&R’s sources at the Yerkes lab, Wenka is still alive – presently living in a group setting with seven or eight other chimpanzees who are all younger than her. Our most current information indicates that she is the third oldest chimpanzee in research in the world.
HOW TO HELP
Sign the Project R&R letter that will be sent to NIH officials, lab directors, and affiliated university presidents – individuals who can show compassion to these elderly chimpanzees whose lives have been spent and exhausted by research.
According to a recent independent public survey
commissioned by Project R&R, 71% of Americans
support the release of chimpanzees who have spent
longer than 10 years in a laboratory.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Make a donation: help Project R&R’s rescue
efforts. These chimpanzees have little time left!
