With 143 cosponsors to date, the Great Ape Protection Act (H.R. 1326, currently in the House Energy and Commerce Committee) continues to gain support. Meanwhile, opposition to the bill is beginning to become vocal — a sign that they are starting to get that this bill ’has legs!’
“We are ready for the opposition’s point of view,” says NEAVS/Project R&R Executive Director Dr. Theodora Capaldo. She adds, “And that is all it is, a point of view, without scientific, ethical, or economic foundation. We have the arguments in place to refute any and all of their exaggerated, misleading, and inaccurate claims. We have powerful legislators who want to hear both sides of the story. Our members and compassionate citizens everywhere should take pride in having helped fueled this debate. Opposition to the bill underscores the bill’s progress — gaining the support of thousands of citizens, scientists, and government leaders — and it informs us that the opposition is getting that, yes indeed, this really is happening.”
In response to opposition, Dr. Capaldo notes “We at NEAVS look forward to addressing their concerns and highlighting reality: ending chimpanzee research is not at the expense of human health. Instead, it will help move scientific advances forward via new progressive research methods that do work — thus helping and saving both human and chimpanzee lives and millions of wasted taxpayer dollars.”
NEAVS/Project R&R members are asked to keep an eye out for our ongoing eAlerts with timely action items to help pass the Great Ape Protection Act!
Help release Wenka and all elder* chimpanzees languishing in U.S. labs.
Sign the petition for their release from labs and placement into sanctuary.
Wenka is a frail 56-year-old chimpanzee, held at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta, who deserves sanctuary. Her time for the comfort and safety of sanctuary is running out.
While Project R&R is committed to getting all chimpanzees out of all U.S. labs, your immediate help is needed to secure Wenka’s release, along with that of all of the other elders in captivity – most if not all of whom have been in a lab for 40 years or more. Many have spent their entire lives in a lab 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 (ages as of 2010)
• Wenka, age 56 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Gwen, age 54 – New Iberia Research Center (deceased)
• Flo, age 53 – Alamogordo Primate Facility, NM (government owned)
• Cheeta, age 53 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Lulu, age 53 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Maxine, age 53 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Susie, age 52 – Primate Foundation of Arizona, AZ (deceased)
• Karen, age 52 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Billy Ray, age 51 – New Iberia Research Center, LA (released 2007)
• Guy, age 51 – Alamogordo Primate Facility, NM (government owned)
• Diana, age 50 – New Iberia Research Center, LA (not listed in 2010 census)
• James, age 50 – Alamogordo Primate Facility, NM (government owned)
• Jan, age 50 – New Iberia Research Center, LA (not listed in 2010 census)
• Julius, age 50 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Lady Bird, age 50 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Pumpkin, age 50 – New Iberia Research Center, LA (not listed in 2010 census)
• Sandy, age 50 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Walter B., age 50 – New Iberia Research Center, LA (not listed in 2010 census)
• Clay, age 50 – New Iberia Research Center, LA (not listed in 2010 census)
• Martha, age 50 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Mary, age 50 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Harriet, age 49 – Primate Foundation of Arizona, AZ (deceased)
• Kirby, age 49 – Alamogordo Primate Facility, NM (government owned)
• Reba, age 48 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA (deceased)
• Jenda, age 48 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA (deceased)
• Jake, age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA (deceased)
• Henry, age 48 – Alamogordo Primate Facility, NM (currently at New Iberia)
• Winny, age 48 – Alamogordo Primate Facility, NM (government owned)
• Pierre, age 48 – M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, TX
• Gigi, age 48 – M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, TX
• Happy, age 48 – M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, TX
• Beleka, age 48 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Iyk, age 48 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Josam, age 47 – Alamogordo Primate Facility, NM (deceased)
• Boka, age 47 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA (deceased)
For a list of all known elder chimpanzees in U.S. laboratories, click here.
Some labs have not responded to our requests for 2010 census 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.
*On average, the life expectancy for chimpanzees in captivity is only 30 yrs/males and 45/yrs females. Their time is running out. Chimpanzees are considered elderly beginning at 25 yrs/males and 30 yrs/females.
Sources: Cohen, J. (2007, January 26). The Endangered Lab Chimp. Science, 315, 450-452; and Videan, E. N., Fritz, J., & Murphy, J. (2008, April). Effects of Aging on Hematology and Serum Clinical Chemistry in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). American Journal of Primatology, 70(4), 327-338.
Project R&R’s Elder Campaign is currently focusing on chimpanzees 48 years of age or older.
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 petition 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 one of the oldest chimpanzees 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 an 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!
