Urge the NCRR to Adopt the Chimpanzee Breeding Moratorium Permanently

Chimpanzees bred for research are destined to a laboratory life very different from their natural life in the wild. The similarities between chimps and humans, often the justification for using them as research subjects, are the very reasons why chimps should not be used. Chimpanzees experience a range of emotions, including depression, anxiety, pain, distress and empathy. These complex cognitive abilities and emotions make confinement of chimpanzees in cages and their use in research highly questionable on ethical grounds. These highly intelligent creatures also possess complex mental abilities, including self-conception, anticipation of future events, mathematical skills, tool use and acquisition of languages created by humans.

There are currently 1,300-1,400 chimpanzees living in U.S. laboratories today. Chimpanzees in captivity can live to be 60 years of age, so any chimpanzees bred today could be destined to live as research subjects for up to six decades—and at taxpayer expense. The number of chimpanzees in laboratories could be reduced by ending the breeding of additional chimpanzees—a small but significant step in ultimately ending the cycle of chimpanzee research. You can help by thanking the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) for extending the breeding moratorium until 2007, urging them to adopt this moratorium permanently, and end the breeding of research chimps altogether.

Contact:
Barbara Alving
Director, Division of Comparative Medicine
Telephone: 301-435-0744
Fax: 301-480-3819
E-mail:CMADIR@mail.nih.gov

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