Washoe chimpanzee

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
Washoe, 42, died on October 30, 2007 at the Chimpanzee and
Human Communications Institute, on the Central Washington University
campus in Ellensburg, Washington. Captured in Africa as a baby,
Washoe was raised by Allen and Beatrix Gardner of the University of
Nevada at Reno, 1966-1970. Beginning in 1967 they taught her
American Sign Language. Graduate student Roger Fouts and his wife
Deborah eventually took over and continued the project, first in
Oklahoma, then at Central Washing-ton University after 1980. Though
Washoe’s linguistic ability was disputed, she is generally
recognized as the first chimp to learn human linguistic skills,
developing a vocabuary of about 250 words. She went on to teach
American Sign Language to three other chimpanzees–Tatu, 31,
Loulis, 29, and Dar, 31, who all still live at the Chimpanzee and
Human Communications Institute.

Conservationists give cover for Mauritian monkey sales to labs

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:
PORT LEWIS, KUALA LUMPUR, HANOI–Nearly 500 years after
Dutch sailors are believed to imported the first macaques to
Mauritius, claims of a need to control them as an alleged invasive
species have become a front line of defense for the booming Mauritian
macaque export industry– which captures some macaques from the wild,
but breeds them in captivity to comply with U.S. and international
laws that prohibit or restrict the use of wild-caught animals in labs.
Six Mauritian companies export macaques. The largest may be
Noveprim, founded in 1980. “Monkeys are not indigenous to
Mauritius,” emphasized Noveprim chief executive Gerald de Senneville
in an October 2007 interview by Nasseem Ackbarally of the Inter Press
Service, based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Ackbarally found quick agreement from Mauritian Wildlife
Foundation executive director Jacques Julienne and conservation
manager Vikash Tattayah.
“The monkeys are a nuisance from a conservation point of
view,” said Julienne. “They eat birds’ eggs, kill small and adult
birds alike, and attack indigenous plants.”

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Malaysia plans to export street macaques to labs & live markets

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2007:

 
KUALA LUMPUR–Malaysian natural resources and environment
minister Seri Azmi Khalid at a September 5, 2007 press conference
asserted that the government had not lifted a 23-year-old ban on
exporting long-tailed macaques, but admitted that plans are
proceeding to export macaques captured in cities to laboratories and
Chinese live markets.
“I did not use the word ‘lift.’ The media quoted me wrongly,” Seri
Azmi Khalid claimed, according to Loh Foon Fong of the Malaysia Star.
Bernama, the Malaysian National News Agency, reported on
August 17, 2007 that “Malaysia has lifted the ban on the export of
long-tailed macaques.”
“The cabinet has decided to lift the ban because we want to
reduce the number of long-tailed monkeys in urban areas. The lifting
of the ban is only for peninsular Malaysia and does not cover Sabah
and Sarawak,” Seri Azmi Khalid was quoted as saying.
Reporting about the same speech, Elizabeth John of the New
Straits Times wrote that Seri Azmi Khalid said the export ban had
been “lifted.”

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European Parliament moves to halt monkey use in labs

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2007:
STRASBOURG–Four hundred thirty-five of
the 785 members of the European Parliament on
September 6, 2007 endorsed a two-part written
declaration asking the European Commission to
“make ending the use of apes and wild-caught
monkeys in scientific experiments an urgent
priority,” and to “establish a timetable for
replacing the use of all primates in scientific
experiments.”
The declaration against primate use drew
more support than any previous European
Parliament animal welfare measure, “and the
third highest number of signatures on any
declaration since 2000,” said Animal Defenders
International press officer Allison Tuffrey Jones.
European Parliament animal welfare panel
chair Neil Parish enlarged the topic to other
species, telling news media that the declaration
“sends a clear message to the Commission that
animal experimentation should be phased out.”

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Monkey-laundering?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
HONG KONG–Is a small amount of monkey-eating in southern
China covering for a large amount of monkey trafficking from the wild
to U.S. labs?
Among the reasons for vigilance:
* Monkey-trapping and smuggling appear to be increasing
throughout Southeast Asia, allegedly for Chinese markets. Yet
reports from within China indicate no rise in monkey consumption,
amid increasing efforts to suppress eating contraband wildlife.
* U.S. lab use of nonhuman primates has more than doubled,
from 25,534 in 2002 and 25,834 in 2003, to 54,998 in 2004, and
57,531 in 2005, the latest year for which the USDA Animal & Plant
Inspection Service has complete data.

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Pound seizure shocks Sri Lanka

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka–Requi-sitioning
shelter animals for laboratory use, the mostly
banned and discredited practice called “pound
seizure” in the U.S., is now reaching Asian
awareness through the story of Wussie, a gentle
former street dog.
Told first by Sri Lankan newspapers,
Wussie’s story went global via the Hong
Kong-based Asian Animal Protection Network.
Scientific institutions and regulators in New
Delhi, Mexico City, Cambridge, U.K., and
Washington, D.C. were soon investigating their
unwitting involvement.

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NIH makes permanent chimp breeding freeze

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
WASHINGTON D.C.– The U.S. National Institutes of Health on
May 24, 2007 announced that for financial reasons, it will make
permanent a moratorium in effect since 1995 on breeding chimpanzees
kept by the National Center for Research Resources.
The center is responsible for about 500 of the 1,200 chimps
who remain in U.S. laboratories.
Only nine U.S. labs still use chimps.
“NCRR’s prudent decision is timely,” said New England
Anti-Vivisection Society president Theo Capaldo, “since not only
U.S. but world sentiment is growing in support of the day when no
chimpanzees will be used in lab research.”
The NIH escalated chimp breeding in the early 1980s,
anticipating that many chimps would be used in HIV-AIDS research.
However, chimpanzees proved to be extraordinarily resistant
to the human forms of HIV-AIDS.

Israel bans cosmetic & cleaning product testing on animals; EU advisory body approves alternatives

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
JERUSALEM–The Knesset on May 21, 2007 voted 29-0 with two
abstentions to approve on third and final reading a law prohibiting
animal testing of cosmetic and cleaning products.
Taking effect immediately on passage, the law “frees the
2,000-3,000 animals in Israel who are currently used to test cosmetic
and cleaning products,” said the Jerusalem Post. However, the law
allows continued laboratory use of animals in developing medicinal
products and health care procedures.
Bill author Gideon Sa’ar of the Likud Party told the Knesset
that he intrduced it at request of his 16-year-old daughter, Daniella.
“On the basis of what Daniella saw and learned,” Sa’ar said,
“she convinced me that this bill needed to be passed. I am very
proud of this new generation, who want a more humane society.”

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Doc rapped for dog use in sales demo

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:
CLEVELAND–The Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute,
a national leader in researching brain aneurisms, on January 19,
2007 disclosed that it has barred from research for two years a
neurosurgeon who used a dog in a January 10 sales training
demonstration.
The neurosurgeon was suspended at recommendation of the
Cleveland Clinic’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, wrote
Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Sarah Treffinger. The committee
reported the incident to the USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection
Service as a possible Animal Welfare Act violation on January 11.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer and Associated Press disclosed the
use of the dog and the clinic response later the same day.

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