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U.S. and Canadian Primetime TV Weigh in on Chimpanzee Debate
While laboratory directors believe that using chimpanzees for medical
research sparks hope for cures for diseases that plague humans, we and many
scientists worldwide know that’s not true. Chimpanzee research is inhumane, not
productive, unnecessary and a waste of money. Two major primetime news programs
recently presented both sides of the debate. Both of these programs are a must
see!
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| Chimpanzee Life in a U.S. Lab: Fact or Fiction
In a news story that aired Monday night (1/31) on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian
Williams, "Ken & Rosie: When
should lab chimpanzees be retired," reporter Lisa Myers went inside
the Texas Biomedical Research Institute (the host institution for the Southwest
National Primate Research Center [SNPRC]) to see for herself what life is like
for chimpanzees in research. With the cameras rolling, the lab tried to paint a
not-so-bad and even a “high quality of life” picture of the chimps’ laboratory
world. But the realities are very different.
In the program, among the many shocking comments made in support
of the use of chimpanzees in research and in denial of their suffering was
that of Dr. John L. VandeBerg, Director of SNPRC: "When you talk about invasive research, I don't think
these actions [taking blood samples, giving injections or pills] have any
effect whatsoever on chimpanzees psychologically."
Yet, in the footage we see chimpanzees rocking in cages, frantic, with sparse
hair from self-mutilation, stress or poor health, and other visible signs
telling us that these actions do have a drastic effect on them.
Dr. Jane Goodall, primatologist and anthropologist, emphasized,
"All invasive research is torture...and it's not just the procedures. It's
the imprisonment. It's being kept in a small space with no choice. You [the
chimpanzees] just are there. You're powerless."
Dr. Linda Brent, a behavioral primatologist who initiated and directed the
environmental enhancement program to over 6,000 primates at the Southwest
Foundation for 16 years, left to start Chimp Haven,
the national sanctuary funded in large part by the government. Dr. Brent notes that
even after years of being at Chimp Haven, some chimps still exhibit symptoms of
stress from their time in the labs.
Scientists at
SNPRC argue that they provide chimpanzees a quality of life that is just as
good as a sanctuary. Dr. Goodall disagrees... “About sanctuary, everything revolves around
the welfare of the chimpanzees. That's a very different mission than a research
laboratory whose mission is to do research.”
And, as Dr. VandeBerg summarized, “Chimpanzees do
not have a choice to participate in medical research and pigs do not have a
choice to participate in the grinding up of sausage.These are animals ... used by humans for the
welfare of humans...chimpanzees are not people...they are chimpanzees.” With
attitudes like this, it is no surprise that as the cameras leave the facility, so too does the purported “quality” of care.
If
you missed the program, watch it at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/46198400#46198400
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Chimpanzee Life in Sanctuary
vs. Life in a Lab
In another news story that aired Saturday night (1/28) on W5 Canadian TV, "Emotional debate over use of chimpanzees for
medical research," viewers got an inside look at chimpanzee life in a
lab versus life in sanctuary. The story focused on the scientific question of
whether chimpanzees are necessary for biomedical research for humans as well as
on how chimpanzees rescued and in sanctuary still suffer from lab use,
procedures and trauma.
The
show aired footage of HSUS undercover investigation of the New Iberia Research
Center (NIRC). It showed research assistants sedating or “knocking down” a chimpanzee
with a dart gun and allowing him to fall hard onto the concrete floor and
the rough handling of chimpanzees and monkeys when intubated or during other
procedures. The footage created a public relations nightmare for NIRC. Thomas
Rowell, NIRC Director said only that, "There were five minutes or less of video where you said to
yourself, you know, I wish so and so hadn't said this...Or I wish they'd have
been more careful here.” Rowell’s response sorely lacked
concern for the chimpanzees or monkeys. Rowell added, “The procedures that were shown
on that tape are no more traumatic or no more invasive than what all primates
experience when they're enlisted into research protocols."
The
program included a moving interview with Gloria Grow, Founder and Director of
the Fauna Foundation sanctuary whose
rescue of chimpanzees from a U.S. lab makes it the first and only chimpanzee sanctuary
in Canada. She introduces us to Fauna
chimps rescued 15 years ago from research. Even in sanctuary, it is clear that
chimpanzees from research still have a struggle ahead of them. Gloria stated, "Fauna
was the first sanctuary in the world to rescue HIV-positive chimpanzees. And
the three [of the HIV-positive chimps] that are left here at Fauna look pretty good on
the outside, but we know on the inside, they're totally destroyed.”
Gloria
then gets to the heart of the matter by adding, "…For a chimpanzee,
[sanctuary is] a comfortable world… one that … offers them the affection and
respect from human beings they often lacked in research facilities."
If
you missed the program, watch it at: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/WFive/20120127/w5-debate-over-chimpanzees-for-medical-research-120128/
Please send your feedback to the stations and
let them know that you want all chimpanzee research to end now!
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Chimpanzees DO Suffer Psychologically
Years of investigation by NEAVS/Project R&R
provide scientific documentation of the enormous psychological toll taken on
chimpanzees from not only research use but also from confinement and routine
laboratory procedures. Read our
science papers.
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Chimpanzee Use is NOT Necessary
Read our science
papers that document that the use of chimpanzees for
research on hepatitis, HIV and other diseases are neither effective nor
necessary for human health and learn more about the alternatives that are better
and more humane science.
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What You Can Do to Help Chimpanzees and Humans
Please
continue to ask your federal legislators to support the Great Ape
Protection and Cost Savings Act, H.R.1513/S.810.
Log a call and sign
our automated letter. Help us pass this critical and
historic legislation that will end the use of chimpanzees in invasive research
and retire all federally-owned chimpanzees to sanctuary.
In
this 112th Congress, 155 House Cosponsors
and 14 Senate Cosponsors currently support the bill! |
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