Alert! Tell Congress to End Invasive Research on Chimpanzees

April 23, 2008

http://ga0.org/indefenseofanimals/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=13315093 Telephone and Email Your U.S. Legislator Today! www.house.gov www.senate.gov Tell Congress: End Invasive Research on Chimpanzees Take Action to urge your federal officials to pass the Great Ape Protection Act An important new bi-partisan bill, the Great Ape Protection Act (H.R.5852), was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives recently. If it passes, this bill will end invasive biomedical research and testing on chimpanzees in U.S. laboratories. It would also prohibit the federal government from funding research on great apes, prevent the government from breeding chimpanzees for research, and require the transfer of approximately 600 chimpanzees in federal custody from laboratories to permanent sanctuaries. About 1,200 chimpanzees are used in biomedical research in the U.S., which is far more than any other country in the world. An estimated $20 to 25 million in taxes

is spent every year on this research -- money that many scientists say could be put to better use. Meanwhile, countries like Great Britain, Sweden, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Austria and Japan have banned or limited the use of great apes in experiments. IDA has been instrumental in some of the most historic developments in the fight against the cruel use of chimpanzees in medical research -- from the 2002 closure of the Coulston Foundation (which held 650 chimpanzees) to the first criminal charges for animal cruelty filed against an animal research laboratory for alleged institutional neglect and abandonment of chimpanzees.

We now join the chorus of widespread support for this congressional effort to outlaw the use of humanity's closest genetic relatives in experiments, and we ask you to do so, as well. WHAT YOU CAN DO Please Take Action to ask your federal Representative to support and co-sponsor the Great Ape Protection Act (H.R.5852). If your Representative is one of the following individuals, please thank them for introducing/co-sponsoring H.R.5852 instead of responding to the alert: H.R.5852 introduced by:- Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.)- David Reichert (R-Wash.)- Jim Langevin (D-R.I.)- Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) Original co-sponsors:- Bruce Braley (D-Iowa)- Tom Allen (D-Maine)- John Campbell (R-Calif.) - Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) Get contact information for your Representative

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