R&R E- News

October 2008

Pepper: (left) in her 5X5X7 ft. lab cage at LEMSIP
(Right) on her sanctuary island at Fauna



11th Anniversary of Chimpanzee Rescue


Eleven years after their rescue from HIV/AIDS and other research, Sue Ellen, Rachel, Pepper, and others are now ambassadors for Project R&R: Release and Restitution for Chimpanzees in U.S. Laboratories, a national campaign to end the use of chimpanzees in invasive biomedical research. Their anniversary, celebrated at Fauna – the first sanctuary to accept HIV-infected chimpanzees – comes on the heels of research showing that the failure to develop a successful HIV/AIDS vaccine for humans can be attributed to the use of chimpanzees.
"An Assessment of the Role of Chimpanzees in AIDS Vaccine Research," published this month in the international journal Alternatives to Laboratory Animals (ATLA), showed that most of the vaccines developed to date were tested in chimpanzees who endured decades of experiments. Almost all of the vaccines protected chimpanzees from HIV infection, but none were successful in humans. Read more...


Darla rescued from research now safe in sanctuary at Fauna


NEAVS/Project R&R Sets the Record Straight

NEAVS/Project R&R made a factual and sharp response to an editorial in Nature Medicine (Volume 14, Number 8) "When less is not more" that advocates widespread experimentation using nonhuman primates (NHPs).
Our response, entitled "Nonhuman primates mean less, not more, human medical progress" is authored by Jarrod Bailey, Ph.D., Project R&R's Science Director, and NEAVS' president Theodora Capaldo, Ed.D. with co-authors from the HSUS and BUAV. The piece provides scientific rebuttal of points made in favor of NHP research in the Nature editorial. In particular, it highlights evidence of the failure of chimpanzee use, citing data from Project R&R's investigations; addressing humane and ethical issues as well as promoting the use of scientifically superior alternatives. Read more...




Help pass the Great Ape Protection Act
and help spread the word by ordering your campaign pin today!

GAPA Update: Welcome Rep. James Moran (D-VA) and Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT)!

As of today, 28 representatives have signed on as cosponsors to the Great Ape Protection Act (GAPA), H.R. 5852. Thank you to all of you who are helping by contacting your legislators! Please continue to write to your legislator – either to ask them to become a cosponsor of the bill or to thank them for cosponsoring if they are already signed on. And remember, if you are interested in taking a more active role in helping pass GAPA, please contact Jennifer Campbell, Director of Member Services to learn about volunteering for Project R&R and current action items.




Help us build awareness - donate now to support our outreach ads!

Watch for us in this month's "Politics Issue" of the New Yorker

Our ad in this month's "Politics Issue" of the New Yorker (Oct. 13th) will be seen not only by millions of readers, but also: "6,000 copies were hand-delivered to key players on Capitol Hill – from Congressional offices to ... the many Committee members (i.e.: Foreign Relations). Specifically, the people running the country!" - New Yorker Magazine




Last year our poignant full page ad featuring Tom Chimpanzee in the New Yorker raised awareness on the plight of chimpanzees in research. We will continue to place these important print, banner and radio ads, and appreciate your support in helping to get the word out!






Action: Keeping Cloned Meats out of McDonalds

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article “Polls have shown most consumers are uncomfortable with the idea of eating products from cloned livestock, whether for health, ethical or environmental reasons. At the same time, products from the offspring of cloned animals are trickling into the food supply.” Read more...

Chimpanzee Ambassadors Mark 11th Anniversary of Rescue

Chimpanzee Ambassadors Mark 11th Anniversary of Rescue

October 23, 2008 – Eleven years after their rescue from HIV/AIDS and other research, Sue Ellen, Rachel, Pepper and others are now ambassadors for Project R&R: Release and Restitution for Chimpanzees in U.S. Laboratories, a national campaign to end the use of chimpanzees in invasive biomedical research. Their anniversary, celebrated at Fauna – the first sanctuary to accept HIV infected chimpanzees – comes on the heels of research showing that the failure to develop a successful HIV/AIDS vaccine for humans can be attributed to the use of chimpanzees.

"An Assessment of the Role of Chimpanzees in AIDS Vaccine Research," published this month in the international journal Alternatives to Laboratory Animals, (ATLA), showed that most of the vaccines developed to date were tested in chimpanzees who endured decades of experiments. Almost all of the vaccines protected chimpanzees from HIV infection, but none were successful in humans. Investigation of the reasons chimpanzees are a poor model for HIV infection led the paper’s author, geneticist, Jarrod Bailey, Ph.D, to conclude that “claims of the importance of chimpanzee research for human health are misleading and a call to return to their use is without scientific justification.”

As a result of rescues like that of Sue Ellen, Pepper, and others, the world is coming to know chimpanzees who suffered dearly in research. Gloria Grow, Fauna founder and Project R&R co-chair notes, “Nearly every day, for eleven years, I have watched the effects of laboratory use on chimpanzees. And throughout this time, I thought if people only knew them, their stories, this use and abuse would stop. Now, with research showing how useless their suffering was, the point will be driven home: -- all the rest need to be released as well.”

The past decade has seen changes in the perception and use of chimpanzees in research. U.S. laws/policies now prohibit euthanasia for a lab’s convenience; require permanent protection from future use once “retired”; and, ended federal funding for breeding. Funding for chimpanzee research has declined while public outrage over their use has grown and a recent bill introduced calls for an end to their use in invasive research in the U.S. (the Great Ape Protection Act [GAPA] H.R. 5852 – 2007) -- promising to add the U.S. to the list of eight countries that have already banned or severely limited chimpanzee research.

According to Theodora Capaldo, Ed.D., Executive Director of Project R&R, “With chimpanzee research we have all lost – millions of wasted taxpayer dollars and failed science. These costs have been borne in the pain and suffering of a species so close to our own. Chimpanzees we know and care deeply about, like Pepper and Sue Ellen, are no different than the 1,100 others remaining in U.S. labs – some for 40 or 50 years. They too deserve sanctuary before it is too late. As a psychologist who cares deeply about people as well as other species, I see the tragic legacy of chimpanzee use in research, and I am convinced that only by protecting them by ending their use in biomedical research will we also be successful in helping humans.”

Project R&R's HIV/AIDS Paper Published

"...For the millions of people at risk of AIDS, and for chimpanzees, we must move toward more humane and scientifically superior methods.” -Jarrod Bailey, Ph.D., Science Director for Project R&R. Photo credit: M. Nichols
Project R&R's HIV/AIDS Paper Published


Lack of vaccine attributed to use of chimpanzees


NEAVS/Project R&R’s international science team’s most recent paper, "An Assessment of the Role of Chimpanzees in AIDS Vaccine Research”, has been published in the September issue of the scientific journal Alternatives to Laboratory Animals (ATLA - vol. 36 pp 381-428). The paper investigates how current and past research using chimpanzees to develop and test an AIDS vaccine have failed; illustrates how vaccine responses in chimpanzees are not predictive of responses in humans; and asserts that claims of chimpanzees’ critical role and importance in AIDS vaccine development is without scientific foundation.
The publication comes on the heels of recent vaccine failures in late-stage clinical trials, including one vaccine that appeared to increase vulnerability to HIV infection in human clinical trial participants, though the vaccine had proven safe and effective in tests in nonhuman primates.

The paper notes that despite a decline in the popularity of chimpanzees as a research model, (as it has proven to be not only ineffective but actually a dangerous model for humans), some scientists are still insisting on their use. Such a waste of precious research dollars, time, and energy is leaving many questioning the ethical as well as scientific basis of these calls for continued use of chimpanzees to study human health and disease.


Project R&R challenges the motivation behind keeping the myth of the usefulness and necessity of chimpanzee research alive in the face of mounting scientific evidence to the contrary. In fact, a growing number of scientists doubt that a return to their use would lead to any successes. Full story...

Special Visitors

This past Tuesday Oct. 7th we had the honor of a visit from Dr. Jarrod Bailey Ph.D with his lovely wife Dr. Amanda Gereenall from England. They arrived with Dr. Theo Capaldo from NEAVS and spent the day visiting with the Farm Animals, Monkey and the Chimpanzees.


Dr Bailey is the Science Director for Project R&R and had a major role in the publishing of the most recent scientific paper on HIV/AIDS.

They were a plesure to spend time with and were quite taken by the Chimpanzees; Dr. Bailey had a soft spot for our very sweet little Sue Ellen.

Le 7 octobre dernier, nous avons eu l'honneur de recevoir le Dr. Jarrod Bailey Ph.D et sa charmante épouse Dr. Amande Gereenall d'Angleterre. Ils arrivèrent en compagnie du Dr. Theodora Capaldo de NEAVS et passèrent la journée pour visiter les chimpanzés, les petits singes et les animaux de la ferme.

Le Dr. Bailey est le directeur du département des Sciences pour le projet R&R et sa contribution à la publication du plus récent rapport scientifique sur le VIH/SIDA. Ce fut un plaisir de les recevoir et ils furent vraiment touchés de leur rencontre avec les chimpanzés. Le Dr. Bailey avait un penchant pour notre belle Sue Ellen.

Pepper featured on You Tube to end chimpanzee research is a success

Dear Friends of Fauna

In addition to all the news you have been hearing about how successful Project R&R is being in making significant steps in the right direction (including all the cosponsors on GAPA!!!), I am pleased to announce that Project R&R has an important new outreach tool: a video message on YouTube. Produced by Boston University’s Adlab, this 2-minute video entitled “Release Chimpanzees” went live online last week and features students and other young people speaking out on the issue. The video is geared toward a younger audience, a new target population for our work.

You can view our YouTube video, and send it to others, at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROOtB1dlfQQ.

As of yesterday, nearly 1,000 people have viewed the video already, placing us in YouTube’s top 100 favorites this week under not-for-profits/activism.

In addition to our national advertising campaign, radio public service announcements, website, lobbying and live events, YouTube is another way to reach the national audience we need to create a groundswell of support and, ultimately, to pass the Great Ape Protection Act (GAPA) into law. Our YouTube video allows us to harness the power of the Internet and viral marketing, reaching a far wider and more diverse audience than we otherwise could – and to do so with minimal effort and maximum efficiency.

Thank you as always for your own resounding personal commitment to Project R&R/NEAVS and for being part of all our accomplishments. I assure you that NEAVS is dedicated to advancing this cause for chimpanzees – and for all animals – in every strategic way possible until the day we get the job done.


Theodora Capaldo, Ed.D.
President

For more information onf Project R&R visit releasechimps.org

New Horse Shelter/ Abris pour les chevaux

A first look at the new horse shelter under construction.

Un aperçu des travaux du nouvel abri des chevaux.

Jeannie's Birthday

Today Jeannie would have been 33 years old . Let us remember here sweet face and the gentle sound of her stubby little feet dragging as she walked away with her hot tea in hand.

1973-2007

"I hold your heart in my heart"

Happy Farm Animals

Flint, Spike,(rabbits) Chatter (guinea pig)



Gordie, Maurice, Sully
Gordie
Randy (in the feeder), Enya

Warren
Celia

Fauna's New Signs

Our new signs and our Donor plaque are up and look great!




Here are the details of the plaque...


La Fondation FAUNA Foundation
depuis / founded 1997

En reconnaissance de la générosité de nos principaux donateurs
et de l’appui de tous ceux et celles qui ont contriué
à la réalisation de nos rêves les plus chers,
pour le mieux-être des chimpanzés et des autres animaux.

In recognition or our major contributors and in appreciation of all
our supporters who have made our hopes and dreams
for the chimpanzees and other animals come true.



Gloria Grow
Fondatrice et Directrice
Founder/Director 2007

Arcus Foundation , Rêverie Foundation
New England Anti-Vivisection Society, Les Entreprises Allan & Dufresne
Hilda Laveen, The Laveen Family Fund , Litowitz Foundation
Leon Judah Blackmore Foundation , Gil, Roslyn and Cody Kaplansky
Gothika Productions Canada Inc. , Martha Cronyn
Gere Foundation , Debbie Weiers
The Jane Goodall Institute , Margaret Y. Goodman


A very special thank you to NEAVS for donating these great signs to Fauna!!

New Arrivals

New little chickens that hatched 3 weeks ago...