The Miracle of Sanctuary
We wanted to be sure you saw this video footage that circulated in the media last month, showing the release of 38 chimpanzees who had been caged for decades and used in medical experiments. We get to watch as they walk outside for the first time in sanctuary. The images of their overwhelming delight as they step from their indoor enclosure out into the grass and sunshine of the Gut Aiderbichl Animal Sanctuary, near Salzburg, Austria, filled viewers worldwide with tears of amazement, joy, and the commitment to help others just like them who are still languishing in U.S. labs.
Some of the chimpanzees had been born in captivity, others stolen from their families in Africa as infants for use in research, including HIV experiments. When a U.S. pharmaceutical company took over the Austrian laboratory that was using the chimpanzees in 1997, the chimpanzee experiments ended—further testament to the massive failure of the use of chimpanzees in HIV/AIDS research.
Eventually the chimpanzees were released to an indoor, zoo-like setting. Finally, in September, the surviving chimpanzees were released into a spacious outdoor sanctuary.
The joyous images of them blinking wide-eyed in the sunlight and lying blissfully on beds of grass are a sharp contrast to the stark reality of their former lives. In laboratories, chimpanzees can be kept alone in 5’x5’x7’ steel and cement cages, sitting and sleeping on grids of bars. According to the Daily Mail newspaper report that accompanied the above video, “With no stimulation, no nurturing love and no hope, many were driven to the brink of madness and sometimes beyond.”
Now, for the first time in decades, these chimpanzees can enjoy the relative freedoms of sanctuary, roaming outdoors without bars between them … simple pleasures that to them must feel like heaven.
Taking Action for All the Others
The U.S. is the last country in the world to hold chimpanzees for research. Some 1,065 chimpanzees are waiting behind laboratory bars for their turn in sanctuary. NEAVS is committed to giving all of them this same opportunity for release and restitution—and that day is getting closer.
Earlier this year legislators called for an investigation of the scientific merit of chimpanzee research. As a result, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has formed a committee to investigate whether chimpanzees are “scientifically necessary” in biomedical research.
I testified at the committee’s public hearing, sharing the stories of Jeannie and Tom, two chimpanzees rescued from research, who were fortunate enough to enjoy several years of peace and comfort at Fauna Foundation before they died.
There were several people at this meeting who profit from chimpanzee research and who made the typical (and unsubstantiated) arguments in favor of keeping chimpanzees in labs. But several scientists, including representatives of pharmaceutical giants like GlaxoSmithKline, testified that with advances in biomedical technology, chimpanzees are no longer necessary for developing high tech drugs like monoclonal antibodies, vaccines for epidemic diseases like malaria, or other areas. One expert on biodefense research testified that in his area, “I am not aware of any historic use of chimpanzees, no current use and, for the future, I don’t envision any need.”
The IOM report is scheduled to be delivered by the end of 2011. This report could have major implications for the chimpanzees now waiting in labs.
Fighting Science with Science
NEAVS has published two new science papers—strategic additions to our vast arsenal of peer-reviewed works building the ethical and scientific case for ending chimpanzee research.
Our science director, Dr. Jarrod Bailey, has a sixth paper now in press for the December issue of Alternatives to Laboratory Animals (ATLA).
Titled “Lessons from Chimpanzee-based Research on Human Disease: the Implications of Genetic Differences,” this paper analyzes the small degree of genetic difference (estimated at 1-3%) that separates humans from our closest genetic relative, the chimpanzee. Despite this seemingly strong similarity, Dr. Bailey shows, there are in fact key differences in gene expression that make it impossible to use chimpanzees to accurately predict results in humans. This reality begs the question, if research using our closest relative in the animal kingdom is this unreliable, how much more unreliable is research using rats, mice, cats, dogs, or any other species? Dr. Bailey testified at the first IOM meeting and left everyone impressed with the wealth of information we are able to provide to substantiate our case to end the use of chimpanzees. The opposition falters and is left silent in response to our work; they cannot discredit it with arguments to its contrary because those arguments do not exist.
In addition, I and my co-author Gay Bradshaw, PhD, PhD have written a third psychology paper, currently in press for publication as an Animals & Society Institute Policy Paper: “Humanity, Reason, and Justice: Law of Psychiatric Injury and the Bioethics of Great Ape Wellbeing.” We demonstrate that it is virtually impossible to use chimpanzees in biomedical research without inflicting extreme and often lifelong psychological suffering on them—a direct violation of the Animal Welfare Act, which requires that the psychological well-being of primates be met. Given this inherent contradiction between federal law and the reality of laboratory life, this and our previous papers—which for the first time documented chimpanzee psychological suffering in human-based, clinical terms—challenge the ethics of science’s arbitrary species barrier as to who is worthy of protection and who is sacrificed … even if for no good reason.
NEAVS Website: Bigger & Better
In 2006, NEAVS launched releasechimps.org, our award-winning campaign website. Used by thousands around the world, including scientists, it remains the single most important and comprehensive resource for groups and individuals working on behalf of chimpanzees in labs.
This fall we are following suit with the release of a bigger, better NEAVS website that is equally comprehensive and promises to serve again as the resource to go to for information on all important issues surrounding the use of animals in research, testing, and education.
In addition to a sharpened image, including our new logo (the NEAVS rabbit, but now outside her rectangular box), our new site has updated and expanded information on the plight of animals in labs, as well as on the progress being made to replace animals with scientifically superior and humane alternatives. New or improved features include Frequently Asked Questions, resources for students and the public, the latest on areas of animal use and non-animal alternatives, updates on NEAVS campaigns, interactive tools, and ways to get involved. Our site address remains the same, neavs.org. Watch for the website launch at the end of this month!
Sanctuary Fund
Through our Sanctuary Fund, NEAVS proudly supports special and unique efforts to rescue animals from vivisection. Over the years NEAVS has given significant support to Animals Asia, the leading China-based rescue and advocacy organization working to end the horrific form of vivisection known as “bear farming,” in which endangered bears are confined for years in coffin-like cages in order to have their bile extracted through crude and excruciating surgeries. The bile, used in traditional Eastern medicine, can now also be found in items like toothpaste as those who profit from its sale exploit modern marketing strategies.
Most recently we made a special 2011 donation to the Moon Bear Rescue Fund to help care for bears now in sanctuary, as well as to rescue future bears in urgent need. NEAVS now sponsors a bear named Shima (“island” in Japanese—named after my rescued Akita named Shima, who was my dear companion for many years before her passing).
Shima is a young bear, just over two years old, who was rescued from a bear farm along with four others. Now safe from cruel confinement and bile extraction, she will have the opportunity to grow up with other bears in the relative freedom of sanctuary.
Bears worldwide are threatened by the international trafficking of bear parts for traditional Asian medicine. In my last President’s Report, I told you that NEAVS was supporting pending New York legislation to help end the sale and transportation of bear gallbladders and bile. I am pleased to report that this bill was signed into law and will take effect in January. The new law sets highly restrictive measures on the commercial trade in bear parts in New York—a major improvement that will help end the poaching of wild bears. There are now only four remaining states in the nation (Idaho, Maine, Vermont, and Wyoming) which allow free commercial trade in bear parts.
In other sanctuary news, NEAVS also gave a major donation from our Sanctuary Fund to Chimp Haven as seed money to help build a new outdoor habitat enclosure for five new chimpanzees—Murphy, Flick, Pierre, JoJo, and Doc—who are former victims of HIV research. Jo Jo is one of the first chimpanzees that famed chimpanzee expert Dr. Jane Goodall met in a lab. These chimpanzees came from the Wild Animal Orphanage (WAO) in Texas, which closed due to bankruptcy. Our funds were the first awarded for this rescue and were followed by other significant contributions which have allowed construction to begin. We are pleased to support this effort. When sanctuaries fail, their animals must continue to be cared for. We thank Chimp Haven and Save the Chimps for opening their doors to these former WAO chimps, who were among those rescued from the LEMSIP lab in the late 1990s.
Looking Forward
In our Fall newsletter, I quoted John Stuart Mill: “Every great movement must experience three stages: ridicule, discussion, adoption.” Never has it been more clear to me that we as a society are in the “discussion” phase of animal rights—and approaching the point of “adoption.”
As part of NEAVS’ Leadership Circle, you are among those who have given the most generously in support of our groundbreaking work. Your generosity is what makes our campaigns happen. Every science paper, every educational ad, every presentation, every legislative outreach or policy initiative, every rescued animal we’ve helped have a “good day” in sanctuary, is thanks to you.
What makes the case for animal rights all the more noble and extraordinary is that, unlike humans, animals have no ability to advocate on their own behalf. The fight for their protection is entirely in the hands of compassionate humans—those who have no stake in this debate other than a wish to see all living beings treated with dignity, kindness, and respect.
My sincere personal gratitude to you for being part of this army of compassion.
