Chimp shot after escaping research center

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BASTROP

Chimp shot after escaping research center

UT officer kills animal after he scaled wall at Bastrop facility.

By Claire Osborn, Joshunda SandersAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

 

Friday, March 14, 2008

 

had just been released into a corral to play on a telephone pole jungle

gym when the 18-year-old medical research chimpanzee did something very

surprising.

"He, amazingly, leaped 16 or more feet from the poles to the edge of

the perimeter wall and was able to pull himself over," Dr. Christian

Abee, director of the Michale E. Keeling Center for Comparative

Medicine and Research in Bastrop, said Thursday.

The 140-pound chimp escaped about 8 a.m. Wednesday into a pasture

adjacent to the center, where he was shot and killed by a University of

Texas at Houston police officer.

A research center staff member saw Tony escape, and a team from the

center spent 30 minutes trying to capture the animal, Abee said. The

team, which had been trained to capture escaped animals, had fired a

tranquilizing dart into the chimp, but it did not take effect, Abee

said. The team was surrounding the animal in an open pasture and

preparing to shoot another tranquilizer when the officer fired the

fatal shot, Abee said.

The center is affiliated with the University of Texas M.D. Anderson

Cancer Center in Houston and houses about 2,000 primates. Officials are

investigating what happened, he said.

The officer has been placed on administrative leave with pay, which

is standard procedure in cases involving use of force, according to UT

police.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed a complaint

Thursday with the U.S. Department of Agriculture alleging that the

research center had violated the federal Animal Welfare Act by failing

to ensure that personnel were qualified to perform their duties and

failing to provide structurally sound housing for the chimps, according

to a statement issued by the group.

The type of corral that Tony was in, which has concrete-reinforced

walls and barred windows but no roof, has been used for more than 30

years and a chimp has never jumped before, Abee said. Use of the

corrals has since been restricted to prevent risk to other chimps, he

said.

"No one could have predicted this," he said. "This tragic incident

has been very hard on our staff. Our staff becomes very close and very

attached to these animals in our care."

Tony was born at the center when it had a breeding program for

chimps, Abee said. Though no longer bred at the center, chimps are

still used for biomedical research, he said.

Chimps can live to be 50 years old and are very muscular, Abee said.

He would not comment on whether Tony, who was not trained, was

dangerous, but he said that large, powerful animals in general could be

considered a danger to the public.

It was the second time in five months that a chimpanzee has escaped

from the campus, Assistant UT at Houston Police Chief Thomas Engells

said.

The first incident happened in November, when three chimps escaped

from the Primadome, an outdoor roofed enclosure separate from the

corrals.

Two of the escaped chimpanzees were quickly corralled and the third chimp, Jake, was recaptured three hours later.

 

Though Jake and Tony's escapes "occurred fairly close together, they

are quite different," Abee said. "So we have to look at them both very

carefully to determine what happened and whether there were ways to

prevent them."

cosborn; 445-3871

 

joshundasanders; 445-3630