Alamogordo Chimps Get Temporary Reprieve

Nearly 200 chimpanzees formerly used for invasive research are getting a new, albeit temporary, lease on life.

You might remember the ongoing saga of the Alamogordo chimpanzees, the former research animals living at a National Institutes of Health facility in New Mexico. Tempers flared last year when the NIH announced that the chimps were going to be moved to Texas and put back into the research grind. Talk about a change in standard of living. At least in the Alamogordo facility, the chimps had access to fresh fruit, socialization, indoor and outdoor areas, and the like. It's a far cry from being put back into the pool of animals to be confined, poked, prodded, hurt, and exposed to lots of nasty substances.

The chimps' plight raised a big wave of activism and awareness. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine raised a ruckus, and it ended up turning into a pretty star-studded one at that. Among the celebrities who got involved were Gene Hackman, True Blood's Kristin Bauer, and the closest thing the primate world has to a rock star, Dr. Jane Goodall.

Even the Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, got involved in a big way, making it clear that he wanted the chimps to stay retired (and in New Mexico) and then rattling cages at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to get an investigation underway.

With this much activistic, political, and Hollywood firepower behind them, it's hard to understand why the NIH has taken such a hard line on the Alamogordo chimps. Fortunately, it looks like the NIH has backed down, at least somewhat.

On December 30, the NIH called Governor Richardson and told him that the chimps would be staying in New Mexico, pending the results of a National Academy of Science review of the government's use of chimps in research. So, it appears that the Alamogordo chimps are safe for the next year and a half or so.

But before we start celebrating a victory, let's take a look at the situation. This is very much a temporary reprieve. The good news is that the next 18 months gives those of us interested in protecting these animals time to urge the government to pursue a permanent solution, and some sort of lasting change as well.

The permanent solution, as we've been telling you all along, is to officially retire the 186 chimpanzees at the Alamogordo facility. Right now, as we've seen, they're not retired — they are, at best, semi-retired or on hiatus. They can, as the NIH wanted to do, be returned to the cages and the labs at any time. It's time for that to change, and you can help out by putting pressure on your congressional representatives.

The lasting change may well come in the form of the Great Ape Protection Act, which is good not only for the 186 chimps at Alamogordo, but the 500 or so chimps being used in the U.S. for research right now. Under the Great Ape Protection Act, America would stop using great apes for invasive research (most other nations have already done this), and the apes being used for research now would be sent to sanctuaries, where they could spend the rest of their lives in dignity.

The Alamogordo chimpanzees have suffered enough. It's time for the NIH to do their part.

Photo credit: Graham Racher