Animal Testing Weekly Update

We're continuing to hold the New York Blood Center (NYBC) accountable! 

The New York Blood Center used chimpanzees for research - making millions of dollars from the work - and when they were no longer needed, the chimpanzees were left on islands in Liberia. NYBC promised to financially provide for care of the chimps since they rely on human caretakers for food or water and will die without it. But NYBC has abandoned this commitment. 

Join us at this week's events, as we join forces with fellow animal advocates to demand that NYBC resume their commitment to the chimpanzees:

What: MetLife Protest 
Date: Tuesday, May 17th
Time: 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM

Where: 1095 Avenue of the Americas (between 41st & 42nd)

Details: MetLife is NYBC’s largest corporate donor. Join advocates with TheirTurn, Care2 and NYCLASS to urge MetLife to demand that NYBC reinstates funding for their chimpanzees. RSVP here.  

What: Humane Society of the United States, with special guests, Press Conference 
Date: Thursday, May 19th
Time: 12:00 PM 

Where: Steps of New York City Hall, City Hall Park, New York, NY 10007

Details: Join The Humane Society of the United States, New York State Senator Tony Avella, New York State Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, a representative from the Jane Goodall Institute, and other guests for a joint press conference event on the steps of City Hall. RSVP here.  

We have to keep the pressure on. These chimpanzees are depending on us to be their voice and help save their lives. Please come out to be part of these important events. 

Chimpanzees at New Iberia Research Center to Be Sent to Sanctuary. Experimenters are no longer allowed to conduct invasive experiments on captive chimpanzees now that they’re protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. But hundreds of chimpanzees continue to be warehoused in U.S. laboratories, deprived of the freedom they want and need. Thankfully, the New Iberia Research Center (NIRC) in Louisiana recently announced that it’s going to place the 220 chimpanzees at its facility in a sanctuary in Georgia. The move is slated to take three to five years.

NIRC has a history of mistreating nonhuman primates. One chimpanzee, named Jade, was subjected to many cruel and invasive experiments there. When she was just 8, NIRC experimenters intentionally infected her with the hepatitis C virus. Pieces of her liver were removed, and she was infected with numerous other viruses. She was likely shot with dart guns dozens of times to be anesthetized for handling, as was standard practice at NIRC for decades. These “knockdowns” are terrifying and traumatizing to chimpanzees, who scream and frantically try to escape.

In September 2015, PETA discovered that NIRC had irresponsibly allowed Jade to become pregnant. The baby’s birth certificate identifies him only as “A15A001,” but he has since been named Ryker.
Ryker, a chimpanzee born at the New Iberia Research Center

Ryker's father
For months, PETA urged NIRC to move Jade and Ryker to a sanctuary, and we hope the pair will be among the first chimpanzees transferred, giving young Ryker the opportunity to live most of his years in relative freedom.

We’re pleased that NIRC has implemented a plan for transferring the 220 chimpanzees to a sanctuary, but the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which promised to send all federally owned and supported chimpanzees to sanctuaries, is still dragging its feet. Few chimpanzees have been retired since NIH’s November 2015 announcement, and many have died while waiting for freedom.

Please Help!
All chimpanzees deserve to live free. Please tell NIH to send all federally owned chimpanzees to a sanctuary now!



Freedom From Abusive Laboratory Dealer for 19 Monkeys Short-Lived. 19 monkeys seized the opportunity of their cage being broken to make their escape from Alpha Genesis, a South Carolina–based primate dealer that breeds and sells monkeys to laboratories. The monkeys have since been recaptured, but they aren’t the first escapees from this primate prison hellhole.
monkeys in outdoor PPI enclsoure
One monkey escaped from her enclosure during a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection in February of this year, and last year, two monkeys escaped from an outdoor enclosure. One was captured, while the other sustained internal injuries and died after being shot with a dart gun that ruptured her internal organs. In 2014, 27 monkeys escaped from Alpha Genesis, one of whom was never recaptured.

Nearly 50 monkeys have escaped from Alpha Genesis within the past two years alone, and those who remain in captivity endure unimaginable horrors. One monkey died of thirst, and four others were treated for dehydration when the water supply to their cages was turned off for a week.

Another monkey froze to death when she was left outside in plummeting cold temperatures. Three monkeys died as a result of “cold stress” after being sedated. And a juvenile monkey was killed when she was foolishly caged with more aggressive monkeys.

The USDA is investigating Alpha Genesis, and PETA is calling on the agency to shut the company down in light of its demonstrated inability to comply with federal animal-welfare regulations.



Update: Demand That MetLife Hold New York Blood Center Accountable for 67 Abandoned Chimps
Demand That MetLife Hold New York Blood Center Accountable for 67 Abandoned Chimps
TARGET: Steven Kandarian, CEO of MetLife - 117,096 of the 120,000 Goal

Overview petition
Update #4
We are thrilled to report that our chimp protest at the mansion of MetLife CEO Steven Kandarian (the target of this petition) was covered in his hometown newspaper. Here's a link to the excellent article: http://bit.ly/1XpG1cv which many of his friends, neighbors, colleagues and employees will see. On Tuesday (5/17), we are staging a protest (with the help of Care2) at the MetLife building in NYC. If you live in the area, please join us. Here are the details: http://bit.ly/21YnNPC

Update #3 
MetLife has yet to respond to the abandoned chimp crisis, so we've had to escalate our campaign. On 5/10, 15 activists staged a protest in front of the NJ mansion of the CEO Steven Kandarian. We also marched through his town & interacted with hundreds of people, many of whom know him. On 5/17, a larger group will protest at the MetLife building in NYC: http://bit.ly/21YnNPC. We will keep fighting until MetLife holds the NY Blood Center accountable. Plz join the fight here: http://bit.ly/24N8WJp

Update #2 
We already have over 114K signatures. On behalf of the chimps, thank you! MetLife simply cannot continue to ignore the thousands of people who have contacted them through this petition, email, and social media. Here's another very easy way to help. If you have a Twitter account, please use this tweet sheet to contact MetLife and its investors - along with other NY Blood Center donors. We know from feedback from other NY Blood Center donors that the tweets make a difference: http://bit.ly/1MDSW7Z

Update #1
We - and the chimps abandoned by the NY Blood Center - will not be ignored. Because MetLife has refused to engage with us about the crisis, 20 activists in NYC occupied the company's lobby for 30 minutes during rush hour. Here's a short video of the extraordinary disruption, which has already been shared over 1,000 times on Facebook. Please watch & share: http://bit.ly/1NQcAOl - Also, if you're on Twitter, please use this tweet sheet to contact MetLife and its investors: http://bit.ly/1MDSW7Z

About This Petition
As the New York Blood Center's (NYBC) largest corporate donor, MetLife has the power to compel the organization to reinstate funding for the 67 chimpanzees who they abandoned with no food or water. 

For a 30 year period starting in the mid-1970s, NYBC conducted experiments on over 400 hundred chimpanzees in Liberia, where they could capture, breed and experiment on them with little regulatory oversight. When the research was complete, NYBC moved the survivors onto six islands in Liberia and one island in The Ivory Coast and made a public commitment to provide them with lifelong care.

In May, 2015, the New York Times reported that NYBC had “withdrawn all funding for them,” leaving the chimps to die of starvation and thirst. Since then, an HSUS-led coalition of over 30 animal conservation groups has raised funds from the public to pay for the chimps’ care on an emergency basis.


Please sign this petition to ask MetLife, NYBC’s largest and most prominent corporate donor, to exert its influence over NYBC by demanding that the organization provides the funding to pay for the care of the chimps.

Don’t Build Lab Where Thousands of Animals Will Die. 
PETA_AnimalTesting
Target: Professor Richard Blaikie, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research at the University of Otago
Goal: Cancel plans to build a new animal research building where thousands of animals will undergo distressing tests and be killed.
A university has announced plans to build a new five-story animal research facility, despite animal experimentation being incredibly cruel and often inefficient. The University of Otago in New Zealand will spend 34 million U.S. dollars on the new lab despite increasing evidence that animal testing is ineffective for human research and can even be dangerous as it produces deceptive and misleading results. This money could be far better spent on more accurate and humane research methods.
Moreover, the University of Otago reportedly used 21,705 animals for research during 2014 alone with 18,166 animals actually killed during experimentation.
Sign this petition urging the university to cancel plans to build this facility and work towards replacing animal research with humane and reliable alternatives instead.
Dear Mr. Blaikie,
Please cancel plans to build a new animal research lab at the University of Otago. Animal research is not only incredibly cruel but also proven to be ineffective and even dangerous by providing deceptive results that do not coincide with human results. The vast amount of money earmarked for this project would be far better spent developing humane and more accurate methods of research.
I urge you to scrap plans to consolidate archaic and unreliable animal testing and focus instead on developing humane and effective research methods.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo credit: PETA
Success: Chimps to Be Retired From Lab and Sent to Sanctuary.
chimps-by-Tambako-the-Jaguar
Target: Sarah Baeckler Davis, President, Project Chimps
Goal: Praise efforts to secure release of 220 chimps from research center.
It has been announced that 220 chimpanzees are going to be released from the University of Louisiana’s New Iberia Research Center (NIRC) and retired to a 236-acre sanctuary run by Project Chimps. This is groundbreaking news; it is the largest ever release of captive chimps. It is also the first time a private research facility has consented to liberating its entire colony.
“We’re making history here,” said Project Chimps President Sarah Baeckler Davis. “We’re thrilled to partner with NIRC on this retirement of so many chimpanzees. It’s an unprecedented collaboration and a momentous occasion for chimpanzees.”
The chimps’ long-time confinement at the controversial laboratory provoked waves of public criticism. Dozens of petitions, like this one on ForceChange, were drafted and signed demanding that NIRC retire the animals to a reputable sanctuary. The chimps, whose ages range from one to 50 years, will be relocated in small social groups over a period of two or three years, while Project Chimps arranges for the appropriate accommodations. The first group of 10 is to be delivered to the sanctuary in June.
Steven M. Wise, President of the Nonhuman Rights Project, applauded the news.”This long overdue move by the NIRC is a significant milestone in our long-term campaign to change the legal status of nonhuman animals,” he said. “We’re thrilled these chimpanzees will have their bodily liberty and integrity returned to them at Project Chimps.”
It is encouraging and inspiring to know that organizations like Project Chimps are working tirelessly to give these animals the happiness and fulfillment they so deserve. Please sign the below petition thanking the people at Project Chimps for their invaluable work.
Dear Ms. Davis,
I am writing to thank you for the incredible work you did to secure the rescue of 220 research chimps from the New Iberia Research Center.
It is heart-breaking to think about what these innocent animals were made to endure up until this point. However, the fact that they will finally experience redemption at your spacious, 236-acre sanctuary is enough to put a smile on anyone’s face.
Without you and your organization, there is no telling what would have become of these beautiful and intelligent creatures. Thank you for your tireless and indispensable work. I hope you know how much it is appreciated.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Tambako the Jaguar