Grace Slick Asks Congress to End Chimpanzee Experiments

Posted on Oct 30th 2009 9:55AM by John D. Luerssen
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Grace Slick http://www.spinner.ca/tag/GraceSlick/ of
Jefferson Airplane http://www.spinner.ca/tag/JeffersonAirplane/ ,
Jefferson Starship http://www.spinner.ca/tag/Starship/ and
Starship fame http://www.spinner.ca/tag/Starship/ -- is urging Congress to end experiments on chimpanzees. Slick, whose 70th birthday is today, recorded a voicemail http://www.pcrmaudio.org/grace_slick/gapa.wav inviting politicians to a Capitol Hill multimedia exhibit http://www.pcrm.org/resch/gapa/gallery.html about chimps with the hope that they will move to phase out the use of the animals in invasive experiments and retire all federally-owned chimpanzees to sanctuaries.

The voice behind 'Somebody to Love' and 'We Built This City' is working in partnership with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine on the initiative, which supports the Towns-Reichert Great Ape Protection Act. In her voicemail, delivered Monday night, Slick said, "We all need somebody to love, so I was shocked to learn that laboratories can keep chimpanzees locked up in metal cages about the size of a kitchen table. It's time for to join the long list of countries that prohibit invasive experiments on these amazingly intelligent animals."

The exhibit was designed to draw attention to the ethical and scientific implications of chimpanzee experiments. According to the PCRM, when used in experiments, chimpanzees suffer from early separation from their mothers, social isolation, prolonged captivity, sensory deprivation and repeated physical harm. The Great Ape Protection Act would end invasive research on chimpanzees, release federally owned chimps to the aforementioned sanctuaries and end federal funding for the breeding of federally owned chimpanzees.