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This article
is brought to you by...
THE
LEAGUE FOR EARTH & ANIMAL PROTECTION
_____________________________________________
CHIMPS TO BE
FREED FROM EU LAB HELL
[excerpted from World Animal Net and Primefocus ]
The Dutch Parliament has
voted unanimously to hand over the
EU's last known remaining lab chimps to an animal sanctuary,
to live out the rest of their lives in freedom.
The chimps, currently held at the Biomedical Primate
Research Centre (BPRC) in the Netherlands, will be released
to the Dutch Stichting Aap sanctuary, following a sustained
campaign for their release by the "Coalition to End
Experiments on Chimpanzees in Europe" (CEECE).
The 23 chimps infected with HIV, SIV and hepatitis, and 34
non-infected chimps, have been living in appalling
conditions at the BPRC, some of them housed for years in
complete isolation without any natural daylight.
All "healthy" chimps will be released to Stichting Aap in
2003, to be homed in its new Lifetime Care Centre currently
being built near Alicante, Spain. The chimps infected with
human viruses will move to a new purpose-built facility at
the Stichting Aap sanctuary. For many of the chimps, this
will be their first experience of natural sunshine, grass,
trees and a guarantee never to be used in experiments again.
The Dutch government will pay for the construction of both
new sanctuaries and the lifetime care of the apes. Their
decision came, suitably, on World Day for Laboratory Animals
(April 24th) but has only now been finally confirmed.
Another 42 non-infected BPRC chimps are destined
for zoos in
Western Europe (including Valle des Singes in France and
Ameersfort Zoo in the Netherlands). However, Dutch Minister
of Education, Culture and Science, Loek Hermans, is under
increasing pressure from the Parliament and CEECE to
re-examine these plans and instead release all the chimps to
Stichting Aap.
This momentous announcement follows Holland's proposed ban
on the use of great apes in research, to be brought through
the Dutch Act on Animal Experimentation.
However, CEECE is angry that a one-off exemption has been
made for a final six healthy chimps to remain at the BPRC to
be deliberately infected with Hepatitis C later this year.
This is despite the fact that a recent report commissioned
by the Dutch government concluded that there was no
scientific or ethical justification for using chimps in
medical research.
David van Gennep, Director of Stichting Aap, said: "We feel
privileged to become the host to these deserving chimpanzees
and we will not disappoint them."
Janie Reynolds, Director of CEECE, said: "This is fantastic
news for the chimps who will finally have a safe and happy
home after years of captivity, deprivation and invasive
experiments. CEECE will continue to campaign for the
release of all the BPRC chimps to the sanctuary, including
the six still waiting to be infected. We won't give up on
them." |
