Research-primate retirement sanctuaries

The cover of the Sunday, July 24, New York Times Magazine has a drawing of a chimp sitting on a beach (in classic Florida style "retirement") and the caption, "What Does an Aging Chimp Do When His Working Days Are Done? A journey into the realm -- and the issue -- of primate retirement sanctuaries."

The story inside (pg 28) by Charles Siebert, is headed "Planet of the Retired Apes" and sub-headed, "Chimpanzees have been our research subjects, zoo attractions and TV stars. Can we repay them by easing them into their sunset years? Travels among primate retirees."

The opening pages have a photo of the "Save the Chimps" sanctuary in Florida, where "Ultimately, 260 chimpanzees, virtually all of them bred in captivity and used for research, will be set free on one of a dozen three islands on the sanctuary grounds." The photo of chimps wandering free across a bridge on a lush island is in stark contrast to a sickening photo of the chimpanzee pens at the Coulston Foundation, a former biomedical research facility that was acquired in 2002 by the Save the Chimps foundation.

The article opens with a discussion of Chimp Haven, "the first federally financed, taxpayer-supported retirement home for chimpanzees."
We read, "Chimp Haven is a happy consequence of the Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance and Protection (or Chimp) Act, passed in the final days of the Clinton administration. The bill allotted up to $30 million, pending matching funds from private donations, for the construction of the facility, which, with future expansions, could house as many as 900 chimps and serve as a template for the nationwide 'system of sanctuaries' mandated by Congress to accommodate the country's growing number of surplus chimpanzees."

Later in the article, after a discussion of the mass breeding of chimps during the AIDS epidemic, we learn about the surplus of chimps, once it was realized that chimps are not a useful test subjects for HIV research. We read: "With the urging of a consortium of animal-welfare organizations known as the National Chimpanzee Research Retirement Task Force, and with support from numerous laboratories and various zoological organizations, the Chimp Act passed unanimously."

Unfortunately the lengthy and detailed article declines to note that the support of the laboratories came only with an amendment that lost it the support of some primate protection groups. The Chimp Act includes language that allows laboratories to take chimps back into research from a government funded "sanctuary" if scientists decide they are needed. So rather than offering true sanctuary, there is a danger that in some instances the retirement homes could prove to be a taxpayer funded holding ground between experiments. Those activists, such as Jane Goodall, who supported even the final version of the Chimp Act, felt that it was best to do everything possible to get the chimps out of the laboratory setting as quickly as possible; then once they are out, they feel we can fight from an incomparably stronger position if there is an attempt to put any of them back in.

We learn about the chimps who will be heading to sanctuary:
"There are an estimated 2,500 captive chimps in the United States, a number that's difficult to pinpoint because of the many private breeders still turning out baby chimps, mostly for private ownership or use in entertainment. Of the 1,500 or so laboratory chimps, nearly half are no longer being used for experimentation. Lab chimps today are largely confined to behavioral studies and hepatitis and malaria research, and an even greater number may soon be rendered unnecessary for research by advances in DNA analysis and computer modeling. As for the remaining refugees of entertainment and private ownership, their ranks continue to swell even though chimps are unmanageable much past the age of 6 and despite the fact that advances in computer animation may soon obviate altogether the need for actual animal performers.
Chimps are spilling forth now from all quadrants of our keeping -- research labs, traveling zoos, movie and TV studios, backyard pens -- and an international network of sanctuaries, in Canada, Europe, Africa and South America, along with the United States, has sprung up to accommodate them. Indeed, one newly expanded, privately financed sanctuary called Save the Chimps will soon accommodate more than 250 former lab chimps, the largest collection of retired primates in history."

The article offers an upsetting glimpse into life in the laboratory, and a couple of tender descriptions of interactions between chimps on the new sanctuaries, and between the chimps and humans who are helping to free them, that moved me to tears. It is well worth reading and can be found on line at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/24/magazine/24CHIMPS.html

The cover story opens the door for letters on any aspect of our treatment of members of other species. The Sunday New York Times Magazine letters section is widely read. Please write. The Magazine takes letters at magazine@nytimes and advises, "All letters should include the writer's name, address, and daytime telephone number...Letters may be edited for length and clarity."


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