Who’s living behind the concrete and steel 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 2009 most labs are ignoring or dismissing those requests on technicalities that allow them to circumvent the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Your tax dollars demand an answer.

Project R&R has sent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the main research facilities holding federally owned or supported chimpanzees. We have also sent FOIA requests to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for information on chimpanzees who have been released from labs and trasnferred to Chimp Haven. Chimp Haven is the federally supported sanctuary for “retired” chimpanzees that receives 75 percent of its operating costs from NIH.

To date, only two labs have provided updated information on their residents, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the Alamogordo Primate Facility. New Iberia Research Center, Southwest National Primate Research Center, and Yerkes National Primate Research Center refused to answer our requests, based on the fact that they are considered private facilities and therefore not subject to federal disclosure laws, even though they receive public money. In addition, we have received some FOIA documents from NIH regarding chimpanzees transferred to Chimp Haven, however only their ID numbers were listed for a majority of them.

Preparing a current and accurate census of chimpanzees in U.S. research facilities takes 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 move chimpanzees from lab to lab, hide the whereabouts of any one of them, and continue to treat them like expendable commodities.  

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

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

Three things YOU can do right now to help!

1. If you have not already done so in 2009, contact your legislator and ask them to sign onto the Great Ape Protection Act (H.R. 1326) as a cosponsor, or, if they already have in 2009, please thank them. Then ask at least three of your friends or family to contact their legislators too! Email us - releasechimps@neavs.org - for legislator postcards to help make contacting them fast and easy.

2. Please contact the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and let them know that you no longer want your tax dollars going towards research on great apes. Tell them you want funding allocated to:

• Retire chimpanzees currently in U.S. labs to sanctuary.
• Alternatives which are not only more humane but are safer and better science.

3. Recently there has been important media coverage (ABC’s Nightline) on primates in research. As a result, thousands of comments are being posted on social networking sites such as Twitter, blogs, Facebook, etc. Please add your voice to this debate with positive, informative and reasonable comments to help educate the public.    
         
Here are some talking points to counter claims:

Claim: The undercover footage of New Iberia Research Center (NIRC) showed “routine” procedures.

Argument: Such a claim shows profound lack of sensitivity towards the pain and discomfort of animals.  One example in the recent Nightline undercover footage was of a young monkey being intubated. Anyone who has gone through this procedure knows how terrifying and uncomfortable it is; how it triggers the “gag” reflex; requires throat numbing analgesics in humans to make it tolerable; and, how it is never done without the support of nurses and physicians monitoring the comfort of the human patient throughout. It is also a procedure that carries the dangers of infection and perforations. To dismiss this procedure as a common and acceptable practice is insensitive and cruel. If all that we see in the NIRC footage is just “routine”, then we ask - how horrible is what is not routine?

Claim: If animal research were to end, there would be serious health implications for humans.

Argument: Claims as to the necessity of animal research are made in sweeping, unsubstantiated generalizations. Some erroneously proclaim that all major medical advancements have been made because of animals. This is far from the truth.   Scientific data in papers published by Project R&R and others have shown chimpanzee research to be ineffective, unnecessary and even dangerous. The few studies that are published have limited — if any — impact on human biomedical advances.  In particular, their use in AIDS research (the reason so many were bred) was singularly unproductive, including in the search for an HIV/AIDS vaccine. Chimpanzees were long ago abandoned as a model for cancer and other human killer diseases because chimpanzee research does not work. As a model to study humans, they have failed repeatedly and been a waste of precious time and taxpayer dollars. Yet, in spite of the failed science, NIH continues to pour millions of dollars into maintaining chimpanzees in laboratories, versus releasing and supporting them in sanctuary for far fewer tax dollars in far superior facilities. The continued support of chimpanzee research by the U.S. government works against not only animals, but also our human health. 

Claim: Researchers who use an authoritative and reasonable voice to justify their use of an animal model must be right.

Argument: Resting on authoritative rhetoric does not make what they are saying either reasonable or right. Their attempt to calm concerns about suffering and abuse with statements about how “routine,” common, or lifesaving the research is, is unacceptable. The persona they create is a glaring example of what labs — that receive millions in public and private funding — do to justify their work and perpetuate the myth that animal research is necessary and humane. An ever growing number of scientists agree that chimpanzee research is an exorbitant waste of precious research dollars that is actually deterring medical advances — advances that would be arrived at through more productive, humane and cost-effective research methods.

Thank you for taking the time to voice your opinion.

Project R&R is asking all members to contact their representatives immediately and ask them to cosponsor the bill.

Last night, an ABC Nightline segment featured a nine-month undercover investigation of New Iberia Research Center (NIRC) in Louisiana by HSUS that captured footage of the psychological and physical suffering of chimpanzees at NIRC.  A 108-page complaint filed with USDA contains 338 alleged violations of the Animal Welfare Act. The exposé brought the attention of millions to the plight of chimpanzees and monkeys languishing in U.S. labs, promising the groundswell of support needed to pass GAPA into law.

“The realities for chimpanzees and other primates in labs have been brought to light,” said Jarrod Bailey, PhD, geneticist and NEAVS/Project R&R science director. “Laboratories and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) must be held accountable for the bad science, suffering and waste of taxpayer dollars. It is wrong for chimpanzees and for us that their use continues despite being poor, ineffective models to study human disease and despite the toll captivity and experiments on them take.  It’s time to end their use and move precious funding into modern, humane and scientifically superior alternatives.”

According to Theodora Capaldo, EdD, president of NEAVS/Project R&R and a psychologist who has co-authored papers on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in chimpanzees from labs, “The exposé offers a glimpse at the psychological distress chimpanzees and monkeys in labs endure. Deprivation; social isolation; ‘knockdowns’; mishandling; and lack of technicians’ empathy leave them reduced to constant agitation, fear, depression, and even self-mutilation. The toll chimpanzees suffer in laboratories coupled with how unnecessary and unproductive this research is demand an immediate end to their use.  Like humans who suffer trauma, chimpanzees require care and compassion to heal. They deserve nothing less…and they deserve it now.”

In 2006 NEAVS launched its campaign Project R&R to end the use of the first non-human species –chimpanzees and all great apes – in U.S. research. The Great Ape Protection Act, H.R. 1326 will end the use of chimpanzees and all great apes in invasive research, retire all federally owned chimpanzees to sanctuary, end federal funding for such research anywhere in the world and offer other long overdue and precedent setting protections for animals in research.

Go to the ABC News Web site to post a comment.

Please watch your email for a follow up eAlert with timely campaign news.

Thank you for your support and attention.
Project R&R
www.releasechimps.org

*News segment schedules are subject to change. Visit Nightline for more information and local listings.

• Tell-a-Friend: Ask them to visit the www.releasechimps.org to learn more and join our efforts.
• Become a friend: find us on Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and Twitter
• View Release and Restitution online: Project R&R’s 16-minute video presentation and email your friends to do the same. Or, order the CD. It’s an easy way to educate civic groups, schools, animal organizations and other venues.
• Distribute Project R&R’s brochure to family and friends and at events.
• Arrange a presentation of In Their Own Words for 150 people or more.
• Write a letter to your local newspaper.
• Donate or help raise funds.
• For more outreach ideas visit our Take Action page!

Project R&R works for the release and restitution of all chimpanzees in all U.S. labs. In solidarity with U.S. efforts, organizations and individuals from countries around the globe can help.

Please sign the petition(s) below and show your support today!

Canadian citizens: Sign the Canadian Solidarity Petition to Ban Chimpanzee Research in Canada

Non-U.S. citizens (including Canadians): Sign our World Solidarity Petition to End Chimpanzee Research in the U.S.

On October 10, 2008, the DHHS’ drafted regulations for federal sanctuaries were accepted by NIH and published in the Federal Register (Vol. 73, No. 198). The finalized regulations will go into effect starting November, 10, 2008.

To read about Project R&R’s proposed standards that were accepted in the final NIH regulations, please click here.

NEAVS/Project R&R Science Director Jarrod Bailey, PhD expanded on the need for human-based research in his response letter to Newsweek:

Sir:

Sharon Begley’s “We fought cancer…and cancer won” [1] revealed the misuse of $200 billion devoted to cancer research.  This is evidenced by the failure rate in humans of anti-cancer drugs passing animal tests, which is 95% [2, 3] – and those few drugs that do make it are often poor.

The reason for this is simple: animals are not humans. Even in chimpanzees, our closest relative, at least twenty genes implicated in human cancer are significantly different [4]. The ras gene, involved in many human cancers, works very differently in mice [5]; and another gene that promotes cancer in mice restricts cancer growth in humans [6].

While animal research has provided little to elucidate human cancer, more relevant, human-specific research has saved lives and led to progress – as illustrated by Begley’s article. Scientists now have cutting edge methods we could only dream of a few years ago, that can delve deep into human cancers and deliver treatments and cures. Tissue banks can provide human tumor samples from which the activity of thousands of genes can be deduced in days – implicating those involved in tumor formation. This research has delivered important data on breast, colorectal, pancreatic and brain cancers already [7, 8].

The drug Gleevec was almost abandoned when experiments in dogs revealed liver toxicity. Due to encouraging prior experiments using human cells, canine data were ignored and Gleevec proceeded to clinical trials – and is saving lives [9]. The case for human-based research and against animal-based investigations is strong. Combined with preventive programs (fifty percent of cancers are avoidable [10]), we have a genuine prospect of reversing the increase in cancer and saving millions of lives. Scientists who persist with animal models must leave them behind. If they do not, our failure to make progress against cancer will continue.

References

(1) Begley S. We fought cancer…and cancer won. Newsweek, Sep 6. Available: http://www.newsweek.com/id/157548

(2) Thomas G. Roberts, Jr, MD, MSocSci; Bernardo H. Goulart, MD; Lee Squitieri; Sarah C. Stallings, PhD; Elkan F. Halpern, PhD; Bruce A. Chabner, MD; G. Scott Gazelle, MD, MPH, PhD; Stan N. Finkelstein, MD; Jeffrey W. Clark. Trends in the Risks and Benefits to Patients With Cancer Participating in Phase 1 Clinical Trials. JAMA. 2004;292:2130-2140.

(3) Kola I, Landis J. Can the pharmaceutical industry reduce attrition rates? Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 2004;3:711-5.

(4) Puente XS, Velasco G, Gutiérrez-Fernández A, Bertranpetit J, King MC, López-Otín C. Comparative analysis of cancer genes in the human and chimpanzee genomes. BMC Genomics. 2006 Jan 26;7:15.

(5) Hamad NM, Elconin JH, Karnoub AE, Bai W, Rich JN, Abraham RT, Der CJ, Counter CM. Distinct requirements for Ras oncogenesis in human versus mouse cells. Genes and Development 16: 2045-2057, August 15, 2002.

(6) Tang W, Dodge M, Gundapaneni D, Michnoff C, Roth M, Lum L. A genome-wide RNAi screen for Wnt/beta-catenin pathway components identifies unexpected roles for TCF transcription factors in cancer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Jul 15;105(28):9697-702.

(7) Parsons DW, Jones S, Zhang X, Lin JC, Leary RJ, Angenendt P, Mankoo P, Carter H, Siu IM, Gallia GL, Olivi A, McLendon R, Rasheed BA, Keir S, Nikolskaya T, Nikolsky Y, Busam DA, Tekleab H, Diaz LA Jr, Hartigan J, Smith DR, Strausberg RL, Marie SK, Shinjo SM, Yan H, Riggins GJ, Bigner DD, Karchin R, Papadopoulos N, Parmigiani G, Vogelstein B, Velculescu VE, Kinzler KW. An Integrated Genomic Analysis of Human Glioblastoma Multiforme. Science. 2008 Sep 4 [Epub ahead of print].

(8) Jones S, Zhang X, Parsons DW, Lin JC, Leary RJ, Angenendt P, Mankoo P, Carter H, Kamiyama H, Jimeno A, Hong SM, Fu B, Lin MT, Calhoun ES, Kamiyama M, Walter K, Nikolskaya T, Nikolsky Y, Hartigan J, Smith DR, Hidalgo M, Leach SD, Klein AP, Jaffee EM, Goggins M, Maitra A, Iacobuzio-Donahue C, Eshleman JR, Kern SE, Hruban RH, Karchin R, Papadopoulos N, Parmigiani G, Vogelstein B, Velculescu VE, Kinzler KW. Core Signaling Pathways in Human Pancreatic Cancers Revealed by Global Genomic Analyses. Science. 2008 Sep 4. [Epub ahead of print].

(9) Groopman J (as stated in The New Yorker): republished in Ridely, Matt (Ed) The Best American Science Writing 2002. Harper Perennial 2002. Pp 352: ISBN-10: 0060936509.

(10) Dobson R. Most cancers in Europe avoidable. BMJ  2007;334:62, doi: 10.1136/bmj.39087.526794.DB.