For decades, PETA has been calling for an end to the cruel and irrelevant use of chimpanzees in experimentation. We’ve made significant progress over the years bring an end to this national disgrace, and now the government is finally taking concrete steps to do the same.  

© Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals

An Historic Decision

At a historic meeting this afternoon, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) committee recommended that the agency cut funding for seven of the nine current taxpayer-funded grants for biomedical experiments on chimpanzees and fully or partially cut funding for 12 of 13 behavioral studies. With regard to the fate of these 360 NIH-owned chimpanzees, the committee stated that "the majority of NIH-owned chimpanzees should be designated for retirement and transferred to the federal sanctuary system. Planning should start immediately ...."

The NIH's momentous move follows the landmark 2011 finding of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) that "most current biomedical research use of chimpanzees is not necessary." After the report's release, the NIH formed a committee to determine, among other things, which taxpayer-funded projects should be ended and how many chimpanzees should be retired.

Persistence Pays Off

PETA submitted recommendations calling for a complete end to experimentation on chimpanzees to both IOM and NIH during these deliberations—and that's just one part of the extensive groundwork that led to this exciting development. Every step of the way, PETA has relentlessly pursued any and all avenues to uncover abuse to chimpanzees in laboratories and has advocated for the creation of stronger federal policy and legislation to protect chimpanzees from being tormented in experiments. 

PETA has exposed cruelty in laboratories, filed complaints against laboratories that experiment on chimpanzees, reached out to Members of Congress, organized demonstrations, gained celebrity support, filed shareholder resolutions, launched online advocacy campaigns, and called for an end to this barbaric practice in popular and academic publications.

What You Can Do

The end is in sight, but we must not stop until all chimpanzees are out of laboratories. Please sign PETA's petition asking Congress to retire all federally owned chimpanzees to sanctuaries.

UPDATE: Santa is making his rounds early this year, and this time, he's come through for more than 100 chimpanzees "owned" by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) who are being released from the horrendous New Iberia Research Center. Following pleas by PETA and many others, NIH—after initially announcing a misguided plan to send most of the chimpanzees to a notorious Texas laboratory—has now declared that all the animals will instead be properly retired to a sanctuary!

While this means a truly happy new year (with more to come) for the New Iberia chimpanzees, many others remain in miserable laboratories, where they are subjected to physically and mentally traumatic experiments and captivity. Do like old St. Nick and give them a gift this holiday season: Urge the government to retire all its chimpanzees to sanctuaries.

Originally posted on September 23rd: 

More than 100 chimpanzees will soon be freed from laboratory cages after years of pressure by PETA and other animal protection groups led the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to announce that it will be permanently retiring all the federally "owned" chimpanzees at the New Iberia Research Center in Louisiana, making them off limits for future experimentation.

The announcement follows a landmark report issued last year by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), which concluded that "most current biomedical research use of chimpanzees is not necessary." In the wake of that report, NIH announced that it was suspending funding for any new experiments on chimpanzees and that it would be reevaluating currently funded experiments on chimpanzees.

It seems that NIH is making good on its promise.

PETA has campaigned for the release of chimpanzees from laboratories for decades. In addition to publicizing video footage showing the abuse of chimpanzees in laboratories, PETA successfully campaigned for the permanent retirement of the more than 200 chimpanzees held at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. We also submitted comments to and testified before the NAS, and we submitted official comments to NIH this spring outlining recommendations for the agency's implementation of the NAS report, including calling for the retirement of all chimpanzees in laboratories.

While NIH's announcement marks a tremendous step forward, hundreds more chimpanzees—in federally funded and private laboratories—must still be retired.

Please urge your congressional representatives to support the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act, which would ban invasive experiments on chimpanzees and retire all federally owned chimpanzees to sanctuaries.

PETA is asking the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to take back money awarded to the University of California–San Francisco (UCSF) for cruel experiments on monkeys in which federal animal welfare laws were repeatedly violated.

Lack of Care for Animals—and the Law

In 2011, federal inspectors cited UCSF for two violations of animal welfare laws over the school's abuse of a monkey named Petra, who is pictured below:

Photo: PETA via USDA
Petra

UCSF was cited for continuing to torment Petra in a cruel brain experiment for nearly two years despite her deteriorating health and for failing to remove surgically implanted hardware from Petra's skull, as the experimenters were required to do.

Internal UCSF records obtained by PETA reveal that Petra developed a terrible bacterial infection in the wound where her head was cut open. She rapidly began to lose weight, circled endlessly in her cage, and ripped out her own hair—a common behavior in primates imprisoned in laboratories. Primates are highly social animals, but in laboratories, they are often isolated in small stainless-steel cages as Petra was. As a result, they suffer from severe depression and boredom. 

UCSF Pockets Money, but Petra Pays the Price

NIH policy prohibits spending grant money on experiments that violate federal animal welfare laws. Yet NIH awarded UCSF more than $2.1 million just during the period when Petra was abused, so PETA is urging NIH to demand the return of these funds.  UCSF is no stranger to violating federal animal welfare laws. In 2005, UCSF paid more than $90,000 for dozens of violations of the Animal Welfare Act, which is one of the largest fines ever paid by an animal laboratory. 

What You Can Do

Please contact the NIH and ask that they demand UCSF repay funds awarded during the period when experimenters violated the law by abusing Petra. Are animals like Petra suffering in your school's laboratories? Help save animals from misery and death in experiments by urging your alma mater to stop experimenting on animals.

The University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW) should be cited for violating the Animal Welfare Act. That's the verdict of the veterinarian who oversaw the treatment of Double Trouble and other cats who were subjected to cruel brain experiments at UW. Attending veterinarian Dr. Richard "Jim" Brown agrees with PETA's allegations that laboratory staff failed to give cats proper anesthesia during surgery, failed to effectively address cats' chronic head wound infections, and allowed other serious health problems to go untreated—all of which, Brown wrote, "expos[ed] the animals to unnecessary pain." He explains how the intentional starving of the cats by experimenters in order to force them to cooperate caused severe weight loss and may have compromised their immune systems so that they couldn't stave off infection.

Vet to USDA: Reopen the Case

Now, Dr. Brown has written to the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) expressing his disappointment that the agency did not cite UW after PETA filed an extensive complaint based on internal UW documents. He is also urging the agency to reopen its investigation.

'I Quit!'

You may recall that Brown resigned in 2010 after his concerns about the welfare of the animals were not properly addressed by UW faculty and staff. But even though he is no longer employed by the university, he is still speaking up for animals used in UW's laboratories and demanding justice for the cats who were victims of the school's alleged negligence and abuse.

What You Can Do

While PETA and Dr. Brown work to hold UW accountable, you can help ensure that no more cats suffer like Double Trouble did by asking the National Institutes of Health to cut its funding for UW's cruel brain experiments.

In response to a series of significant animal welfare violations and complaints filed by PETA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has taken the rare step of fining the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) almost $12,000 for repeated violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. ONPRC imprisons, sickens, terrorizes, and mutilates thousands of monkeys each year in experiments with impunity, so it's good to know that the facility will be punished for causing animals to suffer more by failing to uphold even minimum standards.

A Record of Recklessness

The violations, which took place in 2009, included the escape of nine monkeys from the facility as well as the deaths of five other monkeys from a variety of causes, including from dehydration, being injected with unapproved compounds, and improper procedures performed by an inadequately trained employee. Following the escape, PETA called on the USDA to investigate and issue a fine to ONPRC.

In 2007, PETA conducted a shocking undercover investigation, which exposed horrific laboratory conditions at ONPRC. The next year, the USDA issued an "official warning"—the precursor to a fine—to ONPRC. Internal documents obtained by PETA had revealed that a sick pregnant monkey died after being denied veterinary care, that a surgical sponge was left in a baboon—causing an abscess—and was discovered only after he was killed for an experiment, and that experimenters mistakenly performed surgery on the wrong monkey. After repeatedly finding negligence and callous disregard, federal investigators are finally speaking the only language that ONPRC understands: dollars and cents.

What You Can Do

Take a stand for the animals imprisoned at ONPRC. Ask the National Institutes of Health to stop funding cruel and useless nicotine experiments on animals at ONPRC and elsewhere.

PETA's exciting new national anti-vivisection ad campaign tells it like it is: If you call it medical research, you can get away with murder. And April's nominees for Vivisector of the Month are a case in point. They are also so close in heinousness it's going to be a tough fight to call. Here are these baby-animal abusers in all their gory … I mean, glory:

Kevin Grove at the Oregon National Primate Research Center abuses monkeys to try to show that pregnant women should eat healthy foods and that not doing so can be bad for their babies.

Grove confines monkeys to cramped cages and stuffs them with unhealthy foods until they are obese. He then impregnates the monkeys and gives some of them healthy foods and others fatty foods. Some of the mother monkeys from each group are killed and cut open, and their brains and fetuses are removed and examined. The monkeys who aren't killed give birth and have their babies yanked away from them almost immediately, which is traumatic to both mother and baby. Grove and his team then terrorize the babies to see if the ones from mothers who ate unhealthy foods scare more easily.

Grove's junk science has recently been criticized by students, scientists, and compassionate people around the country. And did we mention that the cost of these stupid and inhumane experiments has totaled $3.4 million in taxpayer money since 2007? Is it just me or would that much money be better spent on educational programs teaching pregnant women about good nutrition?
 

 

And in the other corner, Jason Coleman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) spends his days (and our tax money) tormenting and killing baby mice. In experiments funded by the National Institutes of Hell Health, he and his team cut the edges off the eyelids of baby mice and sew the lids together until they fuse to each other and the babies are unable to open one eye. Then they drill holes into the babies' skulls, implant electrodes into their brains, and stab the mice in the eyes with needles to inject drugs. After recording their brain activity, they kill the mice and cut out their eyes and brains.

Both of these vivisectors are a mother's worst nightmare, but which one would you most like to see get K.O.'d by one of our UFC PETA pals? Will it be Kevin "Gravedigger" Grove or Jason "Heart of Coal" Coleman? After you've made your pick, send an e-mail to your representatives and senators asking them cut funding for cruel and deadly animal experiments.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

Woody Harrelson has a heart for animals that's as huge as his list of acting credits. Now, he's teaming up with PETA to help 14 chimpanzees who have been yanked from retirement and sent to the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR) in Texas to be used in invasive and painful infectious disease experiments.

As you may recall, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) originally planned to transfer 202 "retired" chimpanzees to SFBR but shelved this idea following pressure from former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, members of Congress, PETA and other animal protection organizations, and tens of thousands of PETA supporters. However, 14 chimpanzees whom NIH had already transferred to SFBR are still imprisoned at the facility.

This morning, Woody sent a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and NIH Director Francis Collins urging them to "extend the same mercy" to these 14 chimpanzees. Writes Woody, "These aging chimpanzees have been imprisoned for their entire lives. They have endured decades of violence and torment, having been used in everything from space experiments to high-velocity seat belt tests. Only in the last few years have they enjoyed bedding, fruit, toys, the touch and companionship of other chimpanzees, and freedom from the knife. Will you please return the 14 chimpanzees at SFBR to these simple pleasures and allow them to continue the rehabilitation that they have more than earned?"

Will Woody's letter convince these decisionmakers to do the right thing? We'll keep you posted. In the meantime, let's add our voices to the chorus calling for these chimpanzees' retirement.

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

Two hundred and some chimpanzees—previously used in experiments and kept in tiny cells, alone, isolated, and with nothing but a cement slab to sleep on and nothing to see or do, but who have been undergoing rehabilitation and socialization with each other—have been spared from their imminent transfer back into NIH laboratories. These chimpanzees, whom PETA president Ingrid E. Newkirk wrote about on The Huffington Post in 2010, had been about to be shipped out, but the National Institutes of Health has just announced—no doubt because of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson's protests and those of many members of Congress and groups like PETA—that the chimpanzees will not be moved, at least until a study has been conducted, which will take two years.

Fourteen of the chimpanzees were not that lucky and have already been shipped out. Please join us in asking that they not be used and that all the chimpanzees be allowed to go to a sanctuary early in 2011. Meanwhile, pop a cork for our friends at Alamogordo, who have just scraped by under the wire! Thanks to all of you who wrote and called and helped to make this a happier New Year's Eve for these animals.

True Blood's Kristin Bauer and veteran actor Gene Hackman have joined PETA, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Animal Protection of New Mexico, and other animal rights groups in speaking out against the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) plan to transfer more than 200 "retired" chimpanzees from New Mexico to Texas—where they will likely be used in invasive experiments. Some of the animals are 60 years old and are refugees from the space program. Others were used in seatbelt crash tests decades ago.

"We now know that [chimpanzees] use tools, grieve for their dead, and are capable of complex communication with humans," says Kristin. "These wonderful animals deserve so much better."

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is also fighting for these apes: After writing to NIH's director, he met with NIH officials today to urge them to scrap this callous plan.

These chimpanzees need your help! Please take a moment today to ask officials to permanently retire the chimpanzees to a reputable sanctuary.

Written by Paula Moore

PETA Demonstration Against Cruel Toxicity Testing in the ‘90s

You may have heard the news that the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Toxicology Program, and the National Institutes of Health have signed a "Memorandum of Understanding" to coordinate efforts on alternative methods to animal experimentation. This stuff is always more complicated than it sounds, so it’s not quite time to pop the champagne corks just yet (as some groups have been doing)—but feel free to put the bubbly on ice, because it’s a good sign that our hard work is paying off.

Courtesy of the good folks in PETA’s Regulatory Testing Division—who have been working behind the scenes with these agencies for years to get them to admit that their bloated animal testing programs (which are responsible for the suffering and death of hundreds of millions of animals) are outdated, ineffective, and, frankly, absurd—here’s a little rundown on what this all means, and how it came about:

First of all, this is a significant about-face for the NTP and the EPA—both of whom have been shockingly resistant to incorporating modern science into their toxicity testing programs. It looks like the United States is finally beginning to realize (as Europe has known for some time and as the animal protection community has been advocating for years) that the public and the environment can be better protected through non-animal in vitro tests based on well-understood biological principles than by throwing wads of cash and millions upon millions of lives into the bottomless pit of animal testing.

Fighting this entrenched, bureaucratic mentality over the past couple of decades hasn’t been easy—and, as usual, we’ve had to use a two-pronged attack to get it done: While our Regulatory Testing Division comments on each animal testing plan that the EPA and the NTP puts forward, works directly with top corporations doing the testing and finding alternatives, testifies at government workshops and before Congress, and, occasionally, sues the government to disclose their deliberations about promoting animal tests, our Campaigns Department gets out the billboards, the bullhorns, and the bunny suits and shouts about these ludicrous, wasteful experiments to anyone who will listen. During this time, PETA has convinced the Department of Transportation to stop testing corrosive substances on rabbits, followed Al Gore around on his campaign stops with a 10-foot rabbit to convince him to stop pushing EPA animal tests, and worked (ever-so-patiently) to persuade regulatory agencies which still believe that it’s important, for example, to keep testing asbestos on animals (the NTP) and which have failed to ban a single toxic industrial chemical in more than a decade (the EPA) that maybe it’s time to stop testing on animals and start using modern science instead. We’ve also funded the development and incorporation of non-animal test methods to the tune of more than ¾ million dollars in recent years.

This new collaboration is certainly something different, and it’s a promising step in the right direction—but it has to be backed up with Congressional will and funding if it’s going to get anywhere. A new entity must be created with the resources to get the job done—it can not be left to the EPA and the NTP. The fact that the head of the human genome project is involved with this is a good sign—it’s going to take an intense, focused effort on the scale of the human genome project to get the job done.

So we’re hoping that the prevailing wind surrounding the National Research Council’s vision and the newly announced collaboration between the NTP and the EPA will provide the momentum necessary to overcome the inertia that has characterized the American government’s attitude to toxicity testing for decades, and which causes the suffering and death of more than 15 million animals every year.

For more information on what you can do to help animals used for experimentation, check out StopAnimalTests.com.