Campaign links:
The Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act (H.R.1513/S.810) was reintroduced on April 18, 2011 to the 112th Congress in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. This legislation, which will end the use of chimpanzees in invasive biomedical research and retire all federally-owned chimpanzees to permanent sanctuary, has the leadership of Representative Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) and Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT). The bill currently has 155 cosponsors in the House and 14 cosponsors in the Senate.
Read the complete bill text (H.R.1513 and S.810).
Send this automated letter asking your legislators to sign on.
While other countries have already passed laws that limit or prohibit research on chimpanzees, the United States is the only remaining country in the world with a large population of chimpanzees held captive in its laboratories for use in research. An end to U.S. use of chimpanzees—and all great apes—in research will mark the first time any nonhuman species is not allowed to be used in experimentation in the United States.
Learn about other ways you can TAKE ACTION.
Recent History
During the last Congressional session, GAPA had 161 cosponsors in the House and six cosponsors in the Senate.
On April 17, 2008, the Great Ape Protection Act (GAPA) was introduced into Congress. The bill—reintroduced in 2009 as H.R.1326 and in 2010 as S.3694—would prohibit invasive research on great apes and retire all federally-owned chimpanzees to sanctuary. With continued and growing bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, the bill was reintroduced again in 2011 and renamed the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act (H.R.1513/S.810).
On April 20, 2006, NEAVS launched Project R&R: Release and Restitution for Chimpanzees in U.S. Laboratories. Today several national organizations, sanctuaries, and thousands of individuals are committed to and actively working towards an end to the use of chimpanzees in U.S. research and retiring them to sanctuary.
Additional resources
- Brief timeline of key events for chimpanzees in research
- Scientific papers and arguments
- Life in a laboratory
- Fact sheets and materials
