Rowell says he cares about animal welfare as well as human health. He says conditions have improved markedly over the past few decades. Thomas Rowell says he thinks the decision to stop using chimps in research is based on misconceptions about how animals are treated in research facilities. Meanwhile, the Department of Fish and Wildlife uplisted captive chimpanzees to “endangered.” So now, pretty much every research chimp in the country is eligible for retirement, and chimp sanctuaries are expanding as fast as they can. Over the past couple of years, the National Institutes of Health has stopped providing federal dollars for chimp biomedical research because other options are available, and because of ethical concerns. “During the ‘70s, Merck Pharmaceutical Company was developing a vaccine for Hepatitis B,” Rowell says, “and that model” - he’s talking about chimpanzees as an animal model for humans - “was absolutely pivotal for that vaccine being developed, and it’s still in use today.” They made the most headway with hepatitis. Researchers in the United States kept using chimpanzees long after most other countries had stopped. “It was a lot of information that was harvested, that was published, that people utilized as they moved forward in both initiating therapies for HIV and ultimately for trying to produce a vaccine for HIV,” Rowell says. He says the study of chimpanzees was invaluable. He’s a veterinarian by training, and he used to be responsible for all the chimpanzees at the University of Louisiana’s primate research center. “They’ll typically highlight that failure as a reason not to use chimpanzees in research,” says Thomas J. But it turns out chimps don’t develop AIDS the way humans do, so attempts to use them to find a vaccine didn’t pan out. Researchers bred more than 1000 for that purpose. In the 1980s, scientists hoped chimps would help them find an HIV vaccine. that’s what really got Foxy to work up the courage to go further.” And then Jamie would actually come back and throw her arm around Foxy’s waist and walk with her side by side. “And so Foxy would - she would take about five or 10 steps out the door, and then she would just sort of stall, and then she would turn around and then she would try again and she couldn’t quite do it. “Jamie would be out there and she’d be trying to get her friend Foxy to join her,” he recalls. The sanctuary doesn’t have detailed records on the chimps’ past lives, but Mulcahy says when the animals first arrived, they seemed hesitant to venture out during the day and explore the hill behind the building. “Many of the chimps that live here as far as we know may have never seen the sun or stepped foot on grass in their entire lives.” “It is still legal to keep a chimpanzee in a 5-foot-by-5-foot-by-7 foot cage,” Mulcahy says. Before coming to the sanctuary in 2008, the animals lived in a windowless basement in a biomedical research facility in Pennsylvania, according to Mulcahy and Goodrich. The control the chimps have over their caretakers and the environment is very different from the life they had before. “I think I blocked it, but one little piece may have hit your bag,” Mulcahy says. I’m still wearing my boots, but I guess I’m not so “in,” because, a couple of minutes after my arrival, Mulcahy pushes me out the door of the observation room, fast. Other times, it’s showing off your boots. Sometimes it’s serving a smoothie through a giant straw. Mulcahy the people try to figure out what the chimps want. The co-directors live just a few feet from the chimpanzees. Mulcahy have provided a home for seven of them. Jaime is a former lab animal who’s “retired” to the Cle Elum Chimp Sanctuary in Washington state. (Courtesy of the Cle Elum Chimp Sanctuary) Over the past couple of years, policies have changed, and now, pretty much every chimp formerly used in research is eligible for retirement. For decades, hundreds of chimpanzees were used by biomedical researchers in the United States to study HIV, hepatitis, and other diseases. Jamie and her six companions are all former research chimps. “Nod of approval right there,” Diana tells me. I pull up my pant leg so she can see my gray and black boots, and she nods her head vigorously. Shoes, shoes, shoes.”Īpparently, it’s a thing. “She wants to see your shoes,” Goodrich tells me. One of the chimps, Jamie, comes over to us right away and stares intently at my feet. On the other side of the bars, seven chimps are playing. I’m not too worried.ĭiana Goodrich takes me into a small observation room. The first thing I have to do is sign the paperwork saying that, if I die, I won’t sue the sanctuary. The Cle Elum Chimp Sanctuary is just off a lightly traveled desert highway in central Washington state.
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