About the Alamogordo Chimps
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

In Defense of Animals (IDA)
September 2010

Now, the NIH wants to return them all to experimentation – to send them back to a living hell.

For over 25 years, IDA has led the battle to rescue chimpanzees from research laboratories. We fought a nine-year battle to close the infamous Coulston Foundation. This laboratory conducted harmful experiments including HIV, hepatitis C and toxicity tests on hundreds of chimpanzees. As a result of our campaign, 266 chimpanzees and 61 monkeys were freed to sanctuaries, and unprecedented charges were filed by the USDA against the lab.

During that fight, almost 200 Coulston chimpanzees did not make it to the sanctuaries; instead, they remained in New Mexico under the control of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at the Alamogordo Primate Facility (APF) on Holloman Air Force Base. The Air Force said these chimpanzees would undergo no additional experimentation, and since June 2001, there has been no invasive experimentation allowed on them as long as they remain on the base.

Now (September 2010), the NIH wants to return them all to experimentation – to send them back to a living hell. We cannot let that happen! We have an obligation to these chimpanzees, for it was a direct result of our actions that they have not endured invasive experimentation since 2001. Please donate to our campaign to free these remaining 186 chimpanzees at the APF from experimentation!

The Coulston Foundation was owned and operated by the notorious Frederick Coulston, who openly spoke of returning experimentation to the dark ages, with little to no oversight or protection for the animals. Coulston has since died, but now he seems to be reaching up from the grave to turn back the clock. We cannot - we must not - let that happen.

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