What is The Coulston Foundation?
 The Coulston Foundation
(TCF) is a bio-medical research laboratory located in Alamogordo, New
Mexico. TCF purposely infects captive chimpanzees with human diseases
and breeds them for medical experiments. According to the 12/30/97 issue
of the Wall Street Journal, laboratory founder Frederick Coulston
moved on to chimpanzees when his experiments on human prisoners were
halted in the 1960s. Here is how TCF came to manage the world’s
largest captive chimpanzee colony (650 apes).
In the 1950s, the United
States Air Force established a chimpanzee colony as part of the country’s
space program. The original 65 infant chimpanzees–who were abducted
from African forests and whose mothers were likely murdered by their
abductors–were used to test the life support systems aboard the
Mercury capsules prior to sending manned flights into space. The effects
of weightlessness and gravity forces were also tested on the chimpanzees.
By 1970, the manned flights
had become successful and the chimpanzees were no longer needed for
the space program. The Air Force began leasing them to research institutions.
The most famous chimponauts, Ham and Enos, whose missions paved the
way for the space flights of John Glenn and Alan Shepard, are long dead.
Surviving chimponauts and their offspring–141 animals in all–remained
Air Force property. For more than 30 years, they have been victims of
biomedical experiments, transferred back and forth among various researchers,
including those at TCF.
Because chimpanzees and
humans share more than 98% of the same DNA, researchers believed that
infecting chimpanzees with human diseases–such as HIV–and
then injecting them with experimental drugs, might lead to the discovery
of disease cures.
 But chimpanzees infected
with the HIV virus did not develop full-blown cases of AIDS. Progress
in AIDS treatment resulted from experiments on humans, not chimpanzees.
Nonetheless, scientists at TCF and elsewhere continue to perform cruel
medical experiments on chimpanzees. (In one such experiment, researchers
bashed the teeth of a group of chimpanzees with a steel ball so dental
students could practice reconstructive surgery on them).
Because they need care throughout
their relatively long lives (60 years or more), chimpanzees, when no
longer useful for bio-medical research, chimpanzees become a financial
liability to research laboratories. In 1997, the Air Force invited bids
on 141 "surplus" chimpanzees, requiring bidders to demonstrate
their financial ability to provide the chimpanzees lifetime care and
to agree either to use them for research or to retire them.
In August 1998, the Air
Force awarded 111 "surplus" chimpanzees to TCF, despite TCF’s
well-known, abysmal animal care record. The US Department of Agriculture
(USDA) had already cited Coulston for flagrant violations of the federal
Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and additional charges were pending. For example:
• in 1995, three Coulston
chimpanzees literally cooked to death when the temperature in their
unmonitored enclosure reached 140 degrees. Four monkeys died of thirst;
• in March 1998, the
USDA found Coulston negligent in the deaths of two chimpanzees –Jello
and Echo–and the lab was cited for fundamental inadequacies in
its animal care program, serious housing deficiencies and unsanitary
conditions.
The Association for Assessment
and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International (AAALAC) inspected
TCF at the lab’s request. The lab sought AAALAC accreditation as
an important step in attracting research dollars and establishing credibility
for its animal welfare program. Based on its inspection, AAALAC refused
to accredit TCF.
Despite the large number
of chimpanzees and the lab’s lack of accreditation, the Air Force
proceeded with plans to award TCF more chimpanzees. Outraged, the Center
for Captive Chimpanzee Care (Center)–a Florida sanctuary–sued
the Air Force, charging that it had failed to adequately review bids
before awarding TCF the chimpanzees. The Center, whose board of directors
includes eminent animal experts Drs. Jane Goodall and Roger Fouts, contended
that Coulston "has the worst animal care record of any primate
research facility in the history of the Animal Welfare Act." Since
1993, 46 animals –including 33 chimpanzees –are known to have
died "unintended" deaths). In October 1999, the Air Force
and the Center agreed that 21 chimpanzee space veterans previously awarded
to TCF would permanently be retired to the Center.
Continuing its own investigation,
after the Air Force announced the results of its bidding process, the
USDA on February 9, 1999:
• cited TCF for AWA
violations leading to the negligent deaths of chimpanzees Terrance,
Muffin and Holly;
• faulted TCF for engaging
in research activities prior to their approval by the lab’s Institutional
Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC);
• questioned the large
numbers of Coulston animals slated for experimentation; and,
• cited TCF for inadequate
veterinary care.
In August 1999, after AWA
violations led to the negligent deaths of yet another TCF chimpanzee,
Eason, the lab settled USDA charges by agreeing to: comply with the
AWA; cease breeding chimpanzees unless funding for their long term care
was available; by 2002, reduce the TCF colony by 300; and, submit to
unprecedented oversight by animal care and fiscal monitors. At the time
of the settlement, the USDA was already investigating Eason’s death,
the sixth official USDA investigation of TCF since 1993.
On the heels of TCF’s
conviction, In Defense of Animals (IDA), a national animal rights group
long critical of the lab, revealed that within a ten month period TCF
had lost three federal contracts representing half of its income. TCF
tax returns and reports indicated that remaining National Institutes
of Health (NIH) funding and personal loans from Frederick Coulston were
keeping the lab afloat.
TCF is currently the subject
of an ongoing investigation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In July and August 2000, the FDA documented more than 270 violations
of federal regulations governing laboratory practices. The violations,
made public by IDA, include: • lack of standard operating procedures
that insure the quality and integrity of study data; • missing
or misplaced documents; • record discrepancies, and • unapproved
changes in experiment protocols. The FDA’s 31-page observation
of TCF’s violations created widespread concern. The integrity of
data from two drug studies and the study of a spinal device are being
questioned. In other FDA cases that involve violations of good laboratory
practices, the agency has ruled that affected studies could not be included
in drug or product approval applications.
Since TCF signed the August
1999 consent decree with the USDA, settling multiple violations of federal
animal welfare laws, at least seven more chimpanzee deaths at the lab
have been reported: Albro (infant, upper respiratory infection), Dean
(euthanized after nervous system infection and abscesses on spine were
discovered), Babu (found dead with tissue masses on the heart), Kimberly
(dehydration, diarrhea), Rosie (euthanized after belated treatment for
a large uterine mass), one of a set of infant triplets, and Donna, a
36-year-old former Air Force chimpanzee, who died of severe infection
in November 1999 after carrying a large, dead fetus in her womb for
up to two months. A December 13-16, 1999 USDA inspection report documented
four of the chimpanzee deaths and a whistle blower revealed that a fifth
chimpanzee (Rosie) was euthanized for reasons previously described.
On January 18, IDA called
for the USDA to assemble a team of veterinarians and immediately assume
responsibility for care of the TCF chimpanzee colony. IDA’s March
20 testimony before a US House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee
documented "TCF’s unparalleled animal welfare negligence as
well as its violations of data integrity and human safety regulations."
The testimony chided the NIH for continuing to subsidize research at
a laboratory chronically in violation of federal animal welfare laws.
Since 1993, the NIH has funneled at least $10,000,000 to TCF. IDA claimed
NIH’s continued funding of TCF was illegal because federal law
requires the NIH director to "suspend or revoke" funding if
a lab is not accredited by AAALAC and does not have a functioning review
committee. IDA had evidence that TCF’s Institutional Care and Use
Committee (IACUC) had violated multiple federal requirements for approving
research protocols. IDA called on Congress to investigate NIH oversight
failures and IDA and others approached congressmen with a plan to take
over half of TCF’s chimpanzees and turn the facility at Holloman
Air Force Base into a sanctuary.
On April 14, Animal Protection
of New Mexico (APNM) sued the USDA for the agency’s failure to
provide records requested under the Freedom of Information Act on February
24. The complaint on July 26 after the agency again unlawfully withheld
documents responsive to a May 25 FOIA request by APNM.
APNM’s FOIA requests
sought copies of the USDA investigative files which led to the August
1999 Consent Decision and Order and investigative records created subsequent
to the signing of Order
settling the agency’s initial charges against TCF. Although some
records were eventually released to APNM, the USDA had withheld critical
information requested including: • copies of key research protocols;
• the results of necropsies (animal autopsies) performed on the
chimpanzees; • the report of an External Review Team mandated by
the Order; and • a videotape of spinal disc surgery performed on
captive chimpanzee Leonard which shows "events that took place
when Leonard was discovered to have overheated during surgery."
Documents that were released
responsive to APNM’s lawsuit confirm TCF’s atrocious record
of inadequate veterinary care, establish a chronic pattern of violations
of federal animal welfare laws and TCF’s own research protocols,
and reveal that TCF continued to breed chimpanzees in violation of the
USDA Order. Despite this revelation, the USDA failed--and continues
to fail--to levy a $100,000 fine held in abeyance pending TCF’s
compliance with the Order.
In May, the NIH took title
to 288 of the chimpanzees held captive at TCF. An inventory obtained
by APNM under the FOIA states: "All of these animal have been reported
by CF to be either purposely or incidentally exposed/infected with various
hepatitis viruses and/or HIV and need appropriate biocontainment and
specialized veterinary care." The NIH has adopted a chimpanzee
management plan developed by the National Academy of Sciences, which
includes the 287 former TCF chimpanzees. The plan calls for spending
$4.2 million/year to care for 600 chimpanzees. On May 11, the NIH issued
a request for proposals in the Commerce Business Daily, seeking "a
contractor to operate and maintain the …long-term care facility"
projected to house 350 chimpanzees. NIH failed to award a contract after
reportedly receiving only two bids, one of which was from TCF.
APNM received a copy of
the ERT report in late December. The report confirms the continued inadequacy
of TCF veterinary and animal welfare program and for the second time
in two years withholds AAALAC accreditation. APNM and In Defense of
Animals released copies of the report to the public at a press conference
held January 9. State Senator Mary Jane Garcia promised to introduce
legislation removing from the state’s animal cruelty statute the
exemption for research laboratories. State Attorney General Patricia
Madrid supported removal of the exemption and promised to prosecute
cruelty to laboratory animals if the exemption is removed.
The USDA has denied release
of the videotape. The USDA continues to maintain that the videotape
of the seven-hour surgery is entirely exempt from release under FOIA.
The tape would give the public a first hand view at USDA’s oversight
of research at a laboratory supported, in part, with tax dollars. It
would enable APNM to ascertain whether a federal agency is fulfilling
its oversight responsibilities. Research sponsor Spinal Dynamics is
hotly contesting the USDA’s release of the tape to APNM. Despite
APNM’s offer to accept a version of the video tape from which views
of the experimental disc have been redacted, Spinal Dynamics continues
to maintain that release of any portion whatsoever of the videotape
would cause the company substantial competitive harm. APNM learned recently
that Spinal Dynamics has likely patented both the medical device and
its implantation procedure, thereby eviscerating its claims of competitive
harm which formed the basis for the USDA’s decision to withhold
the tape. APNM intends to litigate for the tape’s release. A settlement
conference is scheduled for March 26 at the District Court offices in
Las Cruces.
Last update: 01/19/2001
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