Happy Birthday, Flo! Celebrate Chimps By Speaking Up!

Flo, the eldest resident at the Alamogordo Primate Facility, was taken from the wild, so we do not know her date of birth. But National Institutes of Health records show that on September 29, 2011, Flo turns 54.

As a baby, Flo was used in a circus where she was trained to smoke, then was exhibited at a Tennessee zoo, and in 1972, she was shipped to Alamogordo. At least 115 times, Flo has been chemically immobilized or suffered a “knockdown” (a sedative-loaded dart shot from a firearm). She’s been injected with angel dust and ketamine, suffered severe seizures, and has been exposed to Hepatitis and HIV. Medical records from 2003 state, “This chimp is old and considered to be an anesthetic risk.” Flo can never retrieve her health or the children taken away from her for research. But Flo deserves some peace and dignity at the end of her life.

Flo is in the custody of the National Institutes of Health at the Alamogordo Primate Facility on Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. She and her 173 chimpanzee colleagues have never been officially retired and may yet again be subjected to painful, traumatic invasive testing.

Flo needs one present for her 54th birthday: raise your voice for chimpanzees.
Here are THREE ACTIONS to help. If you have spoken up in the past, thank you! You have helped protect chimpanzees who have suffered long and difficult years in laboratories.

Keep it up and know your voice makes a difference!

1. Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee Prepares Report
on Use of Chimpanzees in Research

APNM’s Laura Bonar joined scientists and advocates from around the country for a public workshop on the use of chimpanzees in research this August in Washington, DC. You can download APNM’s oral testimony to the IOM committee.

Dozens of individuals testified about alternatives to using chimps in laboratory settings, the advances in technology that make using chimpanzees irrelevant, and the ethical implications of using chimpanzees in research. The few who spoke in support of continuing research on chimps had a conflict of interest as they profit from using chimps in invasive research studies, and industry groups who spoke in support of continuing chimp research saw their arguments dissolved by expert testimony during two days of presentations.

Please write to the IOM committee. Use your own words to convey that chimp research is cruel and unnecessary. Ask for the committee’s support of permanent retirement and sanctuary care for Flo and all of the Alamogordo Primate Facility chimpanzees. Emphasize that it’s important to you as a taxpayer that the nation change its legacy with chimpanzees.

2. US Fish & Wildlife Service Reconsiders Chimpanzees

Since 1990, chimpanzees in the wild have been considered “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act, but chimpanzees in captivity have been classified by the lower designation “threatened.” This so-called “split listing” has allowed an abhorrent trade in chimps for the pet and entertainment industries, and has supported the biomedical industry’s profitable use and breeding of chimps for invasive testing while meaningful drug development has languished. Flo has lived this sad reality, but you can take action to help prevent any more pain and suffering of chimps like her.

Now the US Fish & Wildlife Service is considering a petition from multiple complainants, including the Humane Society of the United States, the Jane Goodall Institute, the New England Anti Vivisection Society, and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to list ALL chimpanzees as endangered, as the split listing harms not only captive chimps but the entire species.

You can make a difference by expressing your support to list all chimpanzees as endangered! Ask the US Fish & Wildlife Service to act to protect the Alamogordo Primate Facility chimpanzees who have given everything they can to help humans–these chimps deserve some help from us at last. More information about the petition is available.

3. Contact Congress in Support of the Great Ape Protection
and Cost Savings Act
Major journal, Scientific American, published an editorial on September 27th titled “Ban Chimp Testing – Why it is time to end invasive biomedical research on chimpanzees.” Citing the terrible tragedies that happened in New Mexico at The Coulston Foundation, the editorial calls for the passage of the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act.

If you are on Facebook, simply share the link to the Scientific American editorial with the Facebook page of both your two U.S. Senators and your one U.S. Congressman, and ask for their support of the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act. Mention why you as a voter care about these issues, thank your legislators if they have taken positive action to help, and ask that they champion this legislation to save chimps and tax dollars.

Or you can simply call your Congressional delegation and use the script provided:

“Hello, my name is _______ and I am a constituent in (your city). Can you please pass along a message to my Senator/my Congressman? Scientific American recently published an editorial in support of the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act. A recent public workshop about the use of chimpanzees in research showed that invasive research with chimpanzees is a cruel, crude, and wasteful practice. There are nearly 200 chimpanzees at the Alamogordo Primate Facility who have given everything they could to help humans, now you can save jobs and tax dollars by giving these chimps sanctuary care at the end of their lives. Please support the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act, and work for the passage of this bill.”

Find phone numbers for your two U.S. Senators and one U.S. Congressman by entering your zip code at Contacting The Congress.

Thank you and stay tuned for updates! The tremendous gains made for chimpanzees in the last year have been met with more obstacles. Flo is counting on us to persevere until all of the Alamogordo Primate Facility chimpanzees are retired and provided with sanctuary care. Thank you for your commitment to compassion, ethics, and speaking up for the most vulnerable among us!