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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/science/chimps-sanctuaries-research.html
The era of biomedical research on chimpanzees in the United States is effectively over. Given the nearly 100-year history of experimenting on chimps, the changes seemed to come fairly quickly once they began.
In 2011, the director of the National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins, declared that the N.I.H. would fund no new biomedical research using chimps, which he described as "our closest relatives in the animal kingdom" deserving of "special consideration and respect."
[...] Dr. Collins's decision reflected widespread ethical concerns among scientists about the treatment of such social, intelligent animals. But on a practical level, the care of chimps is costly, and they aren't always a good model in which to study human diseases. They're also a magnet for public concern.
[...] By 2015, the N.I.H. had gone through several stages of decision-making and concluded that it would retire all chimps it owned, retaining none for potential emergency use — in case of a human epidemic, for instance. The agency owns about 220 chimps outside of those now in sanctuaries and supports another 80, which will also be retired.
That year the Fish and Wildlife Service classified all chimpanzees as endangered, removing a longstanding exemption for captive chimps that had allowed biomedical experiments. The decision made such research illegal without a permit requiring that any such experiments benefit chimpanzees. Privately funded medical research on privately owned chimps also was effectively banned.
Currently, about 547 chimps are still held at research institutions, according to ChimpCARE, a site that tracks all chimps in the United States. Some of them are owned or supported by the N.I.H., and some are owned by research institutes like New Iberia, which is part of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
[...] The sanctuaries hope eventually to put themselves out of business. If all goes as planned, in another 50 years or so, there will be no more lab retirees.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @02:13AM (6 children)
advances in integrating human cells and organs into lab mice/rats which are quicker, cheaper, and easier to grow, and since most people hate rats and mice as stupid annoying pests, there is fat less concern over their safety and wellbeing, even though many of the tests done on them are even more horrible and invasive than those done on chimps.
Having said that: I hope this doesn't lead to stopping work on social development with chimps, or work on helping advance them to a more humanlike emotional and technological state. If we can begin elevating our 'lesser' specials to our level we will have a better understanding for someday when we actually discover intelligent extraterrestrial life.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday November 11 2017, @02:19AM (3 children)
Agree 100%. Couldn't have said it better myself.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 11 2017, @03:23AM (1 child)
In fairness, most of the chimp research worldwide has been shut down. Not sure if we were the last holdout, but there isn't much, anywhere. A search found an article that suggests we are indeed the last holdout - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/06/12/chimps-just-got-major-new-protection-from-medical-researchers/ [washingtonpost.com] You judge for yourself whether that is accurate.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @12:24PM
Actually, you are not quite correct. Research is still done in a number of labs, yes, in western nations. The difference is that this is kept rather on the quiet side. And no, they use smaller primates.
The thing is, how do you think Ebola research was done? On mice? You have to test vaccine somewhere, and you can't do that with mice. You use monkeys. The alternative is you use people, but infecting people with Ebola is frown upon. This is also about Chimps, but people would view all sorts of primates are equivalent, and this news is not about them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_testing_on_non-human_primates#Prevalence [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaque [wikipedia.org]
So no, Macaque is not Chimps, but both are monkeys.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 11 2017, @03:38AM
http://altweb.jhsph.edu/wc6/paper111.pdf [jhsph.edu]
That PDF seems to be more authoritative, although it's becoming dated, Aug of 2007.
Abstract
The use of chimpanzees for biomedical research and testing has been on the decline in recent years and
is now restricted or prohibited in a number of countries, largely due to ethical concerns, public opinion,
financial costs, as well as scientific issues. The US and Gabon are the only countries that still have
chimpanzees for research purposes, with the US having the largest colony in the world of approximately 1,200
chimpanzees at nine U.S laboratories. A timeline and overview of existing and proposed international laws
and resolutions regarding chimpanzee research will be discussed. Detailed historical and current information
regarding chimpanzee research in the United States will also be provided, including areas of chimpanzee
research and testing, demographics, financial costs of research and maintenance, status of alternatives, public
opinion, and recent events that will impact the use of chimpanzees in the future. The Humane Society of
the United States'
Chimps Deserve Better
campaign seeks to end invasive biomedical research and testing
on chimpanzees in the United States and retire chimpanzees in laboratories to appropriate sanctuary. An
overview and update
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @03:27AM
LOL. Elevating, huh?
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Saturday November 11 2017, @03:46AM
Why in the world would we want to do that? That's a really strange motivation and on dubious ethical grounds to be very generous. I can't imagine what insight into ET life it could possibly give us. It's just weird and arrogant flailing around with intelligent creatures to make them more like us? No thanks. Doubtful they want that. We certainly don't want our position challenged unnecessarily. Just leave them alone to do their thing. If they get upity we can just start eating them.