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Friday, October 23, 2009
Sanctuary for Chimps Would Best Honor Bernice
By Elisabeth Jennings
Animal Protection of New Mexico
According to government records, Bernice, born July 20, 1970, was inventory number 874-F at Alamogordo's Coulston Foundation, the world's most infamous primate research facility. Bernice died this week at Albuquerque's Rio Grande zoo, at age 39. She was one of 266 chimpanzees who, along with 61 monkeys, was rescued from a life of misery as a research subject in September 2002.
The Coulston Foundation gave up ownership of all the chimpanzees in its custody after a near decade-long battle with California-based In Defense of Animals and Animal Protection of New Mexico (APNM), and in the wake of growing financial pressure from its creditors. World-renowned scientist, Dr. Jane Goodall, said the Coulston Foundation had “the worst animal care record of any primate research facility in the history of the Animal Welfare Act.” The former Coulston Foundation facilities became the property of preeminent chimpanzee sanctuary, Save the Chimps, in 2002.
Fresh fruit and vegetables replaced plain monkey chow. Sunshine on their backs, grass under their toes and islands at their disposal at Save the Chimps' permanent sanctuary in Florida replaced the barren Coulston dungeons. For a handful of the “Coulston chimpanzees,” including Bernice, the Rio Grande zoo became their new and improved home. That Bernice's human caretakers recognized her fellow chimpanzees' need to grieve the recent death of their “grandmotherly figure” shows our New Mexico community acknowledges chimpanzee relationships.
Those of us involved in the years-long battle to wrench those 266 chimpanzees away from the Coulston Foundation referred to their transformed lives in 2002 as an “impossibly perfect ending.” Watching a video of their first steps on the sanctuary islands reinforced how unbearable their former lives were.
Yet while the story of Bernice and some of her fellow “Coulston chimpanzees” was a true victory for those deserving beings, it is far from the end of the story. That is because at this very moment, more than 200 other chimpanzees — the other half of the former Coulston Foundation colony — still languish in a New Mexico “holding facility,” waiting to be rescued. These government-owned chimpanzees are being held at the Alamogordo Primate Facility (APF) on New Mexico's Holloman Air Force Base under a $42.8 million, 10-year “management” contract between Charles River Labs (CRL), a Boston-based company, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Our taxes pay for this transgression.
Sent to the APF by the federal government in the midst of the “meltdown” of the Coulston Foundation in 2000, these chimpanzees are not safe in the custody of CRL. CRL's treatment of the chimpanzees at APF has been so scandalous that it resulted in criminal animal cruelty charges filed in 2004 by then Otero County District Attorney Scot Key. Criminally charged for allowing one chimpanzee to bleed to death, another to suffocate on his own vomit and a third to almost bleed to death, CRL made sure the charges were eventually dismissed in 2008, but the cruelty case made it all the way to the New Mexico Supreme Court, with the help of Goodall, state Attorney General Gary King, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez, former Gov. David Cargo and many others.
Regardless of the unfortunate outcome of the criminal case, there are compelling ethical, scientific and economic arguments that can and should be made so the chimpanzees at APF can finally be retired to a permanent sanctuary.
All of the chimpanzees at APF have been used in biomedical research and have been exposed to microorganisms such as hepatitis C virus or Human Immunodeficiency Virus. None of the chimpanzees is currently being used for medical research. Every chimpanzee at APF has been in captivity for over 10 years.
While the federal government has technically committed to the lifetime care of chimpanzees it has used against their will, that commitment so far rings hollow. Allowing these chimpanzees to finally be permanently retired to a sanctuary would allow them to live out the balance of their lives beyond concrete and steel cages, living as chimpanzees were meant to live. It's what the vast majority of the American public thinks is right. Better still, according to experts, retiring these and other government-owned chimpanzees to sanctuaries also has the potential to save American taxpayers tens of millions of dollars over the life of the chimpanzees.
The chimpanzees' fate is especially urgent. As early as 2010, the NIH may begin the process of automatically renewing CRL's chimpanzee “maintenance” contract that expires in 2011. Such a move would be a monumental tragedy for the chimpanzees and a severe contradiction of Americans' values.
What are we waiting for?
Elisabeth Jennings is executive director of Animal Protection of New Mexico (www.apnm.org).
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