Chimpanzee Retirement Legislation Passes Senate, Goes to President Obama

[Beringia]

http://hsus.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83452e09d69e2019b0122e834970b-800wi


A barrier in the way of government-owned chimpanzees in laboratories being transferred to sanctuaries has been cleared now that Congress has given final approval to support the project. The Senate gave final approval to the National Institutes of Health to spend money on sanctuary care and to begin fulfilling the agency’s pledge to move laboratory chimpanzees to sanctuaries, a move hailed by The Humane Society of the United States as game-changing for these great apes. Earlier this week, the House of Representatives approved that measure, which amends the Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance and Protection (CHIMP) Act. The President is expected to sign the bill in the coming days.

The NIH has announced its intention to retire all but 50 of the approximately 360 government-owned chimpanzees currently in laboratories to sanctuary, but needed the congressional fix to do so. The NIH has begun implementing most of the recommendations recently put forth by an independent expert advisory group on issues surrounding chimpanzee research and retirement. The “Working Group” was established to advise NIH on implementation of the findings of a 2011 Institute of Medicine study which determined that chimpanzees are unnecessary for most biomedical and behavioral research.

Additionally, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in response to a petition from The HSUS and other groups, has proposed protecting all chimpanzees, whether wild or in captivity, under the Endangered Species Act. While wild chimpanzees have long been recognized as endangered, existing regulations deprive captive chimpanzees in the U.S. of protection under the ESA. The current disparity in federal protection of wild and captive chimpanzees has facilitated exploitation of captive chimpanzees in the pet and entertainment trade and in invasive biomedical research, activities that undermine efforts to conserve the species in the wild. The proposed rule would rectify this disparity and require future use of captive chimpanzees to positively benefit the survival of the species in the wild.

“It’s been a remarkable year for chimps, with the National Institutes of Health, the Department of the Interior, and the Congress all taking distinct actions to help chimps and give them better lives in the future,” added Pacelle.

http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2013/11/chimp-legislation-passes-senate-111413.html


Chimp Haven, Louisiana

[font color=#E8A317] [font size=5] Jane Goodall [/font size]

October 15, 2013

The Honorable Harry Reid
Majority Leader
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Minority Leader
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable John Boehner
Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Minority Leader
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Majority Leader Reid, Minority Leader McConnell, Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Pelosi,

As Congress moves to reopen the government after the shutdown so that Americans do not have to suffer while longer-term solutions are put into place, I must share my concern about an issue that was already resolved but will be undone without further action by Congress.

Over the last couple of years, the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a host of scientists and organizations, as well as a large number of Americans, all agreed that it is no longer necessary or appropriate to use chimpanzees in invasive medical testing. Whether the reason is because chimpanzees don't provide a good model for scientific research or because this amazing species experiences many of the same emotions as humans – such as, fear, distress and depression --, this paradigm shift had already taken place and the process of moving the majority of federally-owned chimpanzees into the national sanctuary system had already begun when the government shut down.

Presumably, upon the government's re-opening, the transfer process will begin again. But, without a simple and permanent change in the law that only Congress can make, the chimpanzees may face a return to research laboratories. Make no mistake, this would not happen because the paradigm shift somehow unwound. Rather, it would be because the legislation governing the national sanctuary for chimpanzees, which was enacted in 2000, contains a cap – and the cap will be reached sometime between November 15 and November 30 of this year.

Ironically, as with many ramifications of the budget impasse, failing to remove this cap would cost taxpayers more because it is less costly to care for chimpanzees in sanctuary than in labs. NIH does not need more money to retire its chimpanzees. It simply needs authorization to use funds it would already spend to care for the chimpanzees in the labs to retire them instead. In fact, with this change, NIH would actually spend less on research and the retired chimpanzees with each passing year.

We cannot turn back the clock on the many years that chimpanzees have already given in U.S. research labs. I can only hope that Congress will find a way to agree on changing just a few words to save the government some money and enable these chimpanzees to continue relocating to their hard-earned places in sanctuaries.

Yours sincerely,

Jane Goodall, Ph.D., DBE
Founder, the Jane Goodall Institute &
UN Messenger of Peace



http://www.janegoodall.org/media/news/jane-asks-congressional-leadership-fix-chimp-act

[cali]

1. that made me cry and it made me angry.

thanks for posting this.

[rhett o rick]

4. I have seen it before and still brings a tear. I am at a lose for words. nm

[Beringia]

7. you're welcome

A move toward enlightened treatment of animals, especially when their use for research was not needed.

[mitchtv]

2. they didn't dare send this to GWB

He might've take it personally

[Scootaloo]

3. Good.

I'm not so naive to think animal testing is completely unavoidable... it's one of those "necessary evils" things that really throws a wrench into someone's beliefs.

But chimpanzees aren't "animals," in the colliquial sense. As far as I'm concerned, a chimpanzee is a human, or at least close enough that it deserves the full rights and treatment afforded to a human.

[rhett o rick]

5. I have a real hard time believing in testing on any animal. nm

[Scootaloo]

6. Same here, but sometimes reality and belief don't mesh

Not to say, go crazy on animal testing, but really, I'm under no illusions about the necessity of using nonhumans in the study of medicine.