Primarily Primates’ Resident Chimpanzees Taken Away to Chimp Haven

Harper and Emma from OSU

A terrifying raid in October at Primarily Primates -- resulting in horses, ponies, birds, and other animals being taken away from the refuge -- was followed by an equally frightening event just one month later. People with vans showed up on Thursday the 16th of November. By the next day, they’d taken away seven chimpanzees, claiming to have legal permission to just pack them up and take them to Louisiana.

They called this a “temporary” move. But taking nonhuman great apes from their private sanctuary home and shipping them off to Chimp Haven is no small matter. Not only is such a move physically and psychologically stressful, but it was done under a court-appointed receiver who has the duty to uphold the mission of the charity, Primarily Primates.

The receiver flagrantly contradicted that mission by allowing the chimpanzees to be moved to Chimp Haven. Media reports discussing this move are referring to Chimp Haven as a “new sanctuary.” Upon examination, we find that the truth is quite different.

What’s Chimp Haven? The Story of a Federal Law

In November 1999, Representative James Greenwood (R-PA) introduced H.R. 3514, the "Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance and Protection Act."  Senator Bob Smith (R-NH) introduced the Senate version of the Act in June 2000.

Sheba shares a living space with Sarah, Keeli and Ivy from OSU

The bill’s goal was to create a congressionally chartered holding area for some of the approximately 1,500 captive chimpanzees in laboratories in the United States. Many were not being used in active testing protocols, so they were viewed as a substantial money drain on the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

A prominent blood researcher, Dr. Alfred Prince, testified in support of the law to establish the holding area. Prince explained the long periods needed for chimpanzees to show symptoms of the diseases for which they are used. The bill set out to cut costs for the government’s research sector by having charitable donations make up a part of the funding that’s needed for the apes’ upkeep.

On December 20, 2000, it happened. President Clinton signed P.L. 106-551, the Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance and Protection (“CHIMP”) Act. The new law assigned federal funds to store chimpanzees deemed surplus to immediate experimental needs, and mandated a flow of private funds as part of the maintenance money. The chimpanzees remain under the legal control of the National Institutes of Health, an entity whose primary function with regard to animals is regulating and facilitating their use.^[1] In all aspects, the bill was seen as benefiting those who use chimpanzees in experiments.

Interim housing for the OSU chimpanzees

Moreover, under the CHIMP Act, experiments involving selected apes may continue through the NIH. Apes exposed to diseases with long latency intervals, such as those in hepatitis or AIDS research, are likely candidates for recall. Even if certain apes are accepted with an understanding that they will not be used, a government-declared public emergency could change everything. Under the law, nonhuman apes are simply items, property belonging to humans. This is why it is so very important to have private sanctuaries, separate from institutions that carry out animal experiments.

In early 2001, a public notice went out. The notice explained that the NIH wanted to award a contract to a nonprofit interested in serving as a contractor to the government under the CHIMP Act. It pointed out that the law called for “evidence of your organization’s ability to make non-Federal contributions in cash or in-kind, in an amount not less than 10% of the establishment costs (including construction costs), and 25% of the yearly operational expenses.”^[2]

The notice also cited “cost effectiveness constraints aimed at achieving the savings foreseen by the Congressional Budget Office” and thus asked for “the capacity to house and care for at least 75 chimpanzees... with the future possibility of expansion at the original or additional sites.”

The notice added that the chosen contractor would need “ability and willingness to work with members of the animal protection community, NIH, and a wide variety of other interested parties.” In short, a collaboration between the charity fundraising world and the experimenter’s world. This idea was packaged to the public as a sanctuary effort.

But existing sanctuaries declined to participate in the CHIMP Act’s implementation. To do so would have put them in the disturbing position of having to express willingness to supply apes to biomedical research, if asked.

Emma (not the OSU Emma)

In January 2002, The Association of Sanctuaries (TAOS), the American Sanctuary Association (ASA), Primarily Primates, Friends of Animals, and several primate advocacy groups faxed to Congress a request for repeal of the Act. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) backed the Act, but neither is a sanctuary group and neither would be taking the responsibility to house the apes themselves. Sadly, both were willing to go along with the propaganda that presented Chimp Haven as though it were a true sanctuary.

On October 1, 2001, the NIH issued its formal request for proposals from organizations wishing to operate the system of sanctuaries called for by the CHIMP Act. Responding was Linda Koebner, who had ties to the research community, and had founded the non-profit called Chimp Haven, Inc. in 1995. Chimp Haven received a $10 million grant from the federal government for building.^[3] Chimp Haven began construction to hold its first 200 chimpanzees in late 2003.^[4]

Chimp Haven receives support from individual donors, non-profits, the federal government, the pharmaceutical industry, corporate partners, and zoo and veterinary professionals.^[5] It is sponsored by the Louisiana Office of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, and its site advertises:^[6]

Become involved in a highly visible partnership with Chimp Haven - one of the Louisiana's most unique assets and a destination for thousands. Your Chimp Haven sponsorship will bring you into association with a beloved national organization where families come together for fun and hands-on learning as well as environmental and conservation education.

Fun? Gawking at chimpanzees stuck thousands of miles from their natural habitats after being used in every imaginable laboratory experiment is now called fun?

Another corporate sponsor is Bioqual, a biomedical research firm that uses nonhuman primates in virus tests. Chimp Haven Advisory Board Member Michale Keeling, D.V.M. (now deceased),^[7] as chair of the Department of Veterinary Science at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Bastrop, was listed on an NIH grant that refers to establishing a chimpanzee colony.^[8] In short, Chimp Haven is a public place, and also a place that is conducive to meeting the needs and priorities of the scientific community.

Shipped to Louisiana

Apes who had been used in cognitive experiments in an Ohio lab and finally got to Primarily Primates, where they could live in privacy and benefit from Primarily Primates’ strong record of care for chimpanzees. The refuge provides lifetime care for many chimpanzees, up to the age of 60. The sanctuary’s first chimpanzee, Rudy, arrived in 1983, and is thriving today.

But the Ohio State chimpanzees were taken away in November against the will of Primarily Primates’ director.

Sedation and transport creates serious psychological and physical stress for nonhuman apes, just as it would for us. Two chimpanzees died shortly after finishing their interstate journey from the Ohio State laboratory to Primarily Primates. They suffered from pre-existing heart conditions, common for nonhuman apes faced with the stress imposed by captivity.

A key proponent of moving animals out of Primarily Primates was the appointed receiver, Lee Theisen-Watt, who since October has worked closely with affiliates of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). One of Theisen-Watt’s first official acts was to petition the trial court for authority to begin killing the refuge animals. Although Theisen-Watt’s request was initially granted, Primarily Primates contested that authority, and it was suspended by the trial judge.

Soon after that, these seven chimpanzees were moved. The sanctuary didn’t even have time to contest it.

Primarily Primates’ desire to continue operating as a refuge has the support of donors who have been dedicated to Primarily Primates for many years. Unlike institutes that use nonhuman great apes or work in liaison with entities that do, Primarily Primates does not breed, sell, display, or trade animals, or agree to use animals commercially in any way. As long as they are at Primarily Primates, chimpanzees and other primates have the maximum assurance that they can live out the rest of their lives in peace.

As Priscilla Feral says in the introduction to this issue, the future of Primarily Primates will say much about whether the animal-advocacy community will fight to keep true sanctuaries. It is inherently part of Primarily Primates’ mission to support the continued existence of refuges operated as private charities, distinct from the government or the biomedical research industry.

If you would like to support the legal project to defend Primarily Primates, your contribution will come at a critical time. Please send your gift to:

Friends of Animals
777 Post Road
Darien, Connecticut 06820
with a notation that it’s for sanctuary support.

Footnotes

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