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If you have ever sent an email, made a phone call, wrote a letter, or attended a meeting for the nearly 200 chimpanzees still in National Institutes of Health (NIH) custody at the Alamogordo Primate Facility in New Mexico, your actions have helped make history.
THANK YOU for speaking up and please know that your voice matters!!
December 2011 was a big month for chimps still languishing in laboratories:
- The Institute of Medicine (IOM) released their report “Chimpanzees in Biomedical and Behavioral Research: Assessing the Necessity” finding, “most current use of chimpanzees for biomedical research is unnecessary” and “the present trajectory indicates a decreasing scientific need for chimpanzee studies.”
- After being briefed about the report, New Mexico Senators Tom Udall and Jeff Bingaman urged the National Institutes of Health to promptly adopt IOM report recommendations, protect chimps currently in New Mexico, and requested that the agency fund non-chimpanzee research alternatives.
- Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, announced that the NIH would adopt all report recommendations and suspend funding for future chimp research while a working group is established.
- Senator Tom Udall signed on as a cosponsor of the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act (S. 810/H.R. 1315)!
The world is watching these developments. Hundreds of major media outlets covered the news.
The Albuquerque Journal has published multiple editorials about the reasons why it’s time to retire the chimps, the latest thanking New Mexico’s Senators for showing true leadership on this issue.
Other papers around the country have followed suit, on December 24th the Los Angeles Times editorialized to get chimps out of labs, and the L.A. Times marks the recent change at NIH as one of “Six incidents in 2011 that would make Gandhi proud.”
Don’t miss these media highlights:
• New York Times “U.S. Suspends Use of Chimps in New Research”
• Discover blogged and tweeted about the story, calling it “A Sea Change” and discussing the emotions and sensitivities we share with animals.
• KRQE News 13 “New Mexicans help stop chimp research”
• Public News Service “New Report is a Win for Alamogordo Chimpanzees”
• Democracy for New Mexico “Study Confirms What New Mexicans Have Known for Years…”
• PETroglyphs’ plea to help chimps (see Flo on page 13)
• New Mexico in Focus roundtable discussion on compassion for chimps and all animals, one of their top stories of 2011 (starts around 49:30).
Are the Chimps Finally Safe?
Not yet. We have more to do together.
New Mexicans, please call your members of Congress to thank them for their actions to date in support of ending the use of chimps in research.
Already, dedicated individuals have reached out to volunteer with APNM to help the chimp campaign in the coming months. Help make history and see these chimps permanently retired! Fill out a volunteer form today.
Thank you for your support of Animal Protection of New Mexico and support of our sister organization, Animal Protection Voters. Your membership and contributions are helping animals across our state (and beyond!).
We know there are many animals who need relief from cruel and neglectful situations. Our ability to help is only limited by the resources available – please stand with us to see meaningful change for animals in 2012 and beyond by supporting APNM and APV.
RELATED LINKS:
Read the Entire Chimp Study at The Institute of Medicine website
Read a Critical Overview of the Chimp Study from The Kennedy Institute of Ethics
Watch Huffington Post’s video Chimp Research: The Beginning of the End?
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