Great Ape Protection Act: What's Good for Chimpanzees Is Good for Taxpayers

by Renee Evans · 2011-04-18 10:02:00 UTC
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World Laboratory Animal Liberation Week is this week (April 16-24), and there's no better way to kick it off than to ask your leaders to co-sponsor the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act.

The United States is the last developed country in the world to keep a large number of chimpanzees — about 1,000 — for medical experimentation, but the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act aims to change that.

The Humane Society of the United States estimates that ending biomedical research on great apes could save taxpayers up to 25 million dollars a year and an additional tens of millions of dollars every year for the cessation of breeding programs.

If passed, the bill will end invasive biomedical research on chimpanzees, free all federally captive chimpanzees in labs to sanctuaries, end funding for invasive research both nationally and internationally, and finally, end all funding for breeding programs of federally owned chimps.

The Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act would be the first law to ban an entire species from medical research labs in the United States. The U.S. and Gabon are the only two places left that still perform invasive procedures on chimps.

Life in the lab isn't much of a life at all. Because of human experimentation on the animals, infant chimpanzees are often separated from their mothers too early. Many suffer from social isolation, sensory deprivation and are physically harmed over and over by researchers.

Chimps used for experimentation have a high rate of mental disorders, and it's no surprise why. According to The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, it's legal for laboratories to keep chimpanzees in cages no larger than the average kitchen table — sometimes for nearly their entire lives. Most chimps never see the light of day.

Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives but their physiology is different enough that medicines, procedures and diseases often do not act the same in chimps and humans. PCRM states that only 20 percent of federally owned chimpanzees are actually used in biomedical research while the other 80 percent are kept in cages in warehouses.

Keeping these intelligent, emotional, social and cognitively aware animals in metal cages for research is downright inhumane. There are alternatives available that are reliable and don't bring harm to innocent animals, such as mathematical models, tissue engineering, micro-chip technology and human-based studies.

The Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act is widely supported by animal protection groups including the Animal Law Coalition, Humane Society of the United States, In Defense of Animals, Project R & R and the Jane Goodall Institute.

You can help pass this monumental piece of legislation and protect great apes from a life of physical and mental suffering. Sign and share the petition created by PCRM to ask your legislators to support the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act.

Photo credit: dullhunk

Renee Evans is a longtime animal advocate and co-founder of Animal Liberation Racing in Salt Lake City. She lives with four adopted dogs and three rescued hens.

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