Saturday, September 25, 2010
New Mexico Goes Ape
ALBUQUERQUE — A decision to move 186 chimpanzees from a southern New Mexico facility to Texas is pitting government officials and scientists against a coalition of elected officials and animal-rights advocates, including New Mexico’s governor and also famed primate researcher Dr. Jane Goodall.
The chimps have spent the past decade undisturbed by medical researchers. But the National Institutes of Health has decided to cut government costs by moving the animals to a San Antonio primate facility, where animal-rights activists worry they will be improperly poked and prodded in the name of science.
But is okay to jam a needle in your arm so some pharmaceutical conglomerate can get a taxpayer-funded check cut them. human.
Governor Bill Richardson and others would prefer to see the chimps’ current home, a former biomedical research lab at Holloman Air Force Base, converted into a chimpanzee sanctuary.
Ever hear of Ft. Detrick, human?
Btw, the antidote ain't for you. They will ju$t keep you on drug$.
After visiting the site Tuesday, the governor said the animals are in excellent health, and he suggested the New Mexico lab could instead become a behavioral research facility.
But the director of the Texas facility maintains opponents have it wrong. The chimps will have outstanding care and live in quality surroundings as they undergo testing that can include injections and, in some cases, the use of a needle to remove a small liver sample, he said.
“These are mostly clinical procedures that are also done with human beings,’’ said Dr. John L. VandeBerg, director of the Southwest National Primate Research Center. “We are doing them with chimpanzees to develop drugs and vaccines that can be used in human subjects.’’
Anytime a SCIENTIST sees me as a SUBJECT I become VERY SUSPICIOUS!
VandeBerg said the research is “ethical and imperative’’ if scientists are to develop vaccines to prevent the suffering and deaths of millions of people worldwide from hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV. Chimps share up to 96 percent of their DNA with humans, making them the only animals that can be tested....
The colony of chimps traces its roots to the space race. Their home near Alamogordo, N.M., was once a biomedical research lab operated by The Coulston Foundation. But the foundation turned over the colony to the NIH in 2000 as part of a settlement of animal welfare violations.
Gee, I wonder what it is the did there!
The NIH then hired a private company, Charles River Laboratories in Wilmington, Mass., to manage the facility. The agency decided to send the chimps to Texas after its current 10-year contract with Charles River runs out at the end of 2011....
Related: Willard's Hotel
Who knows what they were doing to those monkeys?
The NIH maintains the move will save taxpayers $2 million a year, and federal officials are showing no signs of plans to alter course....
Now THAT I would NOT MIND LAYING OUT for LIFE!
We could TAKE IT from the WAR FUNDS for a CHANGE!!!
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