Monkeying Around with Animal Testing
by alicia graef

Last week ABC Nightline aired an undercover investigation of the New Iberia Research Center in Louisiana by the Humane Society. If you missed it, you can catch the clip here. If you already saw it, then you already saw the tortured lives of the primates that are forced to reside there.

According to ABC, the facility holds over 6,000 primates and has one of the largest populations of captive chimps in the world. Primates are in already in trouble. According to Conservation International, twenty nine percent of all monkeys, apes and gorilla species are now facing the danger of extinction.

Those of you who are believers in animal testing should definitely take a minute to read Why I Take Animal Tested Drugs in the Huffington Post, written by someone with leukemia, who also used to work for an organization that promoted alternatives to animal testing.

"If the chemo drugs I'm trying now don't work, I do have one last option. I could try a Phase One trial. That's when a drug looks promising in animals and is first tested in humans. My doctor started to tell me why so many participants die in Phase One trials -- but it turned out I already knew the answer. Drugs that work in animals, he explained, usually don't work in humans."

Here's another scary example of a complete failure in animal testing in Natural News.

After the Humane Society's investigation ran, the Great Ape Protection Act was re-introduced in the House of Representatives last week. According to the Humane Society, "this legislation would phase out invasive research on the more than 1,000 chimpanzees remaining in U.S. laboratories, and lay the groundwork for permanent retirement of the approximately 500 chimpanzees owned by the federal government, including Karen and other chimps at the New Iberia Research Center."

You Can Help!

Call to urge your U.S. Representative to co-sponsor The Great Ape Protection Act. Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 or check here to find your Representative and the Capitol office phone number.