If you haven’t already, please call and write Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius today and urge her to halt the transfer of 202 chimpanzees from the Alamogordo Primate Facility (APF) to the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in Texas.
You can send an electronic letter through the Humane Society of the United States and you can call the office of Health and Human Services at these numbers: 301-435-0888 or 202-205-5445 or 877-696-6775 (option #6 on the 877 number may put you in touch with a live person).
These chimpanzees should be allowed to permanently retire, not be subjected to more research. Retiring the chimpanzees is not only the ethical thing to do, it will also save taxpayer money, something we all have a right to speak out about. Currently, the chimpanzees are being warehoused at APF and have not been used in research for at least nine years.
Read our July 16th blog post about this issue for more information and read New Mexico governor Bill Richardson’s press release supporting halting the transfer of the APF chimpanzees.
Also, please see the statement from Save the Chimps released two days ago. It includes a link to a pdf which summarizes the history of chimpanzees in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
The announcement about the plan to transfer the chimpanzees was made well after the decision had been made. We must speak up now and keep the pressure on for the sake of the 202 individuals and their future.
I just called the 301 number and spoke to a live person!!! I had written out a little blurb ready to leave the message but got to convey my thoughts directly and personally!! She took my name and email and assured me that she would share my concerns with the director. She also said that they had been getting a number of messages about the fate of these 202 chimps…..keep calling and writing everyone!!!
YAY, Julie! It’s great to hear that our messages are being heard. This is absolutely heartbreaking to think of those chimps put back in to research. They have given their lives to research and they deserve to retire and live their lives in peace!
I just left a message with Health and Human Services at 202-205-5445 asking for these animals to be retired into peace.
I also spoke with a woman from Dr. Barbara Alving’s office, Director of NCRR, and asked for an update on the chimps. I also spoke of my hopes for the chimps to be retired.