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Thursday, July 22, 2010
Governor Bill Richardson Supports Efforts to Save Alamogordo Chimpanzees
Flo in an outdoor enclosure at the front of APF in Alamogordo
Governor Bill Richardson today issued a statement announcing his support for saving the 202 chimpanzees at the Alamogordo Primate Facility on Holloman Air Force Base that may be moved out of state to be used -- once again -- for invasive research. The Governor sent a letter today to Francis S. Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, expressing his concerns for the chimpanzees and the more than 40 jobs that will be lost if the chimps are moved to Texas.
“This is an urgent situation and I am asking the National Institutes of Health to permanently retire the 202 chimpanzees at the Alamogordo Primate Facility so that they may not be used for invasive research," Richardson said. "New Mexico wants to save these chimpanzees who have already given so much of their lives to the American public as part of medical research studies.”
In a letter to NIH Director Francis Collins, Richardson urges the Institute to permanently retire all of the Alamogordo Primate Facility chimpanzees, return the 15 chimpanzees that have already been sent to Texas and convert the Facility into a sanctuary.
“The small community of Alamogordo stands to lose 42 jobs and millions of federal dollars associated with the care of these chimpanzees should they be moved to Texas,” Richardson said. “There is a compassionate and prudent alternative to the National Center for Research Resources’ plan and I feel strongly that we must save the chimpanzees.”
The chimps have been housed at the Alamogordo Primate Facility since 2001 and according to the agreement with Holloman; no research may be conducted on the chimpanzees while at the Facility. Charles River Laboratories, which operates the Alamogordo Primate Facility, is contracted with the National Institutes of Health until May 2011. The National Health Institute has announced plans to move all of the chimpanzees to Texas where they will be used for invasive medical research by early 2011. In recent weeks 15 of the 202 chimpanzees have been moved to the Southwest National Primate Research Center in Texas.
Click to sign a petition urging the NIH not to subject the chimpanzees to more invasive experiments. You can learn more about this issue and what you can do to help at the A.
July 22, 2010 at 02:46 PM in Animal Protection, Gov. Bill Richardson | Permalink
Comments
Thank you Governor Richardson! Diane Denish should be saying the same thing.
Posted by: Jacob | Jul 22, 2010 3:23:23 PM
Actually, I think it would be smarter to relocate the entire bunch to a real sanctuary in Africa dedicated to long term care and/or relocation to the wild. At the very least, the New Mexico landscape is not natural for these animals.
There are people dedicated to the effort to allow these animals to move away from the pain of their participation in research and towards living in some sort of quasi natural setting. Ultimately, it may be that they can not live in the wild again, having spent a lifetime in a caged environment, but at least they could be in a kind of nature half way house.
Posted by: Stuart Heady | Jul 22, 2010 3:28:19 PM
Thank you, Gov. Richardson. Many of us are getting involved in this. It is one more example of the moral bankruptcy of modern culture and we need to respond to it. My parents knew a military research scientist at Holloman in the 60s. His job was to jolt a chimp with electricity whenever it began to fall asleep to find out just how long it takes to die of exhaustion. He was devastated but without options. This is research we can do without. Let's begin to create options for a future with some sanity. There is no hope for us if we cannot live a life that is compassionate.
Posted by: Maggie | Jul 22, 2010 4:24:24 PM
Stuart these chimpanzees are too old and sick to go back into the wild or even to travel far. They have already been tortured, given diseases and poisons and they need to live out their days in peace. They have been at Alamogordo for 10 years now. Let's let them be.
By the way only the U.S. and the African nation of Gabon still permit "medical research" on chimpanzees. I won't even mention the beagles still being tortured with radiation and bio-weapons at Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute out on Kirtland AFB.
Posted by: Linda | Jul 22, 2010 4:46:15 PM
Well, it is too bad this situation is what it is. There should be a greater sense of responsibility forced on the "scientists" involved in this. We definitely can do without almost all of the sort of research that is generally done on live animals.
I recommend a book I just happened across. "Bonobo Handshake" is a great read. Vanessa Woods is a young researcher who was involved in a sanctuary in war torn Congo which serves to reintroduce young bonobos into the wild. These are another branch of the great ape family, one that is more matriarchal than chimps and less prone to violence. They may be more directly related to the common ancestor we all derive from than chimps. But she does a good job of surveying the circumstance for both bonobos and chimps.
Posted by: Stuart Heady | Jul 22, 2010 8:47:34 PM
A surprisingly compassionate side to the Governor. Who knew?
It makes me feel kinda proud.
Posted by: qofdisks | Jul 22, 2010 10:49:34 PM
I toured this facility once. The chimps there have a wonderful setup, lots of interesting stuff to play with, a lot of variety in their daily routine. The males are separated from the females to keep the peace though, and these are pretty much still wild animals. These full-grown chimps are 130 pounds or so of muscle and must be handled carefully by trained personnel.
I also learned that HAM, the astronaut chimp, was a youngster, only about 3 years old and smaller than the adult chimps. It was a very interesting and informative tour.
Posted by: Ellen Wedum | Jul 23, 2010 3:41:15 AM
