Below is brief background information on the criminal defendants as well as the members of Charles River's Advisory Committee for the Alamogordo Primate Facility. Both the defendants and the members of the Advisory Committee illustrate the insular and interconnected nature of chimpanzee experimentation and experimenters.


Rick Lee, DVM
Veterinarian Dr. Rick Lee's status as an unquestioned leader in the field of chimpanzee experimentation, care and veterinary training exemplifies everything that is wrong with the field. Dr. Lee also exemplifies the insular, interconnected nature of chimpanzee experimentation and experimenters.

For example, in its proposal to the NIH to take over care of the APF, Charles River states that Dr. Lee - its principal investigator on the contract - is "recognized" as "one of the world's leading authorities on provision of veterinary health care to chimpanzees," a "leading mentor of chimpanzee veterinarians," and "a leading chimpanzee researcher and clinician with numerous publications and grants in these fields." Charles River notes that Dr. Lee has "provided formal training in great ape medicine to 14 veterinarians" at the NIH-funded University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center-Bastrop chimpanzee lab during his tenure there, and will be responsible for "ensuring that all of the animals [at the APF] receive clinical care according to the highest current standards."

Dr. Lee's well-regarded status in the biomedical research community is further illustrated by the fact that both the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture picked him to help review the animal care program of The Coulston Foundation in April 2000, as part of the USDA-mandated "External Review Team." Less than a year later, in January 2001, 42 rhesus monkeys overheated to death at Bastrop during Lee's tenure there (the USDA did not fine or otherwise take any action against Bastrop).

As further evidence, the American Society of Primatologists (ASP) recruited Lee to write the chapter "Chimpanzee Medicine and Care Program" in the ASP book "The Care and Management of Captive Chimpanzees". This ASP book is edited by Dr. Linda Brent, psychological enrichment director at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research - one of eight NIH National Primate Research Centers - and also president of the NIH-funded Chimp Haven.


Charles River Laboratories, Inc.
Charles River Laboratories, Inc. is a multinational conglomerate that is the world's largest breeder of animals for experiments, and the largest importer of nonhuman primates into the United States. A publicly traded company with almost $1 billion in annual revenue, Charles River also performs toxicology experiments on animals, including primates. Its subsidiary Sierra Biomedical had advertised the availability of chimpanzees for "preclinical" (i.e., toxicological) testing, but removed the advertisement immediately after IDA publicized it. The recipient of a ten-year, $42.8 million publicly funded contract with the NIH to operate the Alamogordo Primate Facility, Charles River pledged to the NIH that in light of The Coulston Foundation's record, the company would work to "convince the animal protection community that the chimpanzees…are receiving exemplary care." Charles River, named the Massachusetts "Company of the Year" in 2002 by the Boston Globe, has also touted its "Humane Care Initiative," in which it claims that it is a "moral imperative" that animals under its care be "treated with respect and compassion".


James C. Foster, Chairman, Chief Executive and President, Charles River Laboratories, Inc.
Forbes Magazine named Foster "Entrepreneur of the Year" in October 2002. He is not charged personally but is listed in the criminal complaint as the representative of Charles River Laboratories, Inc. IDA cc'd Foster the September 12, 2003 letter notifying Congress, the NIH and Charles River of District Attorney Scot Key's criminal investigation of alleged animal cruelty at the APF. IDA never heard from Foster or anyone else at Charles River or the NIH.


The Alamogordo Primate Facility Advisory Committee
According to Charles River, the APF Advisory Committee "consists of well-respected professionals from around the country whose task is to provide guidance and advice to the APF." The members of the Advisory Committee, recruited by Charles River and, presumably, Dr. Rick Lee, include pillars of the chimpanzee research field, and further illustrate the insular and interconnected nature of chimpanzee experimentation and experimenters. One can only wonder if the "guidance and advice" from this Committee includes any responsibility for the multiple counts of criminal animal cruelty filed against Dr. Lee and Charles River Laboratories.


Thomas J. Rowell, DVM
Director of the world's largest chimpanzee lab with approximately 400 chimpanzees at the University of Louisiana New Iberia Research Center, Dr. Rowell is another well-respected veterinarian in the field of chimpanzee research. He heads this NIH-funded facility, which also experiments on thousands of monkeys. Dr. Rowell's facility performs controversial experiments on chimpanzees, including an NIH-funded study that aims to transmit multiple sclerosis to infant chimpanzees. Like the APF, New Iberia is AAALAC-accredited.


Hilton Klein, MS, VMD
Another veterinarian well-respected in the chimpanzee research field, Dr. Klein - Senior Director of Comparative Medicine at Merck Laboratories, a drug company with a long history of exploiting chimpanzees - is a board member of AAALAC. In 2003, the Charles River Foundation - run by Charles River Laboratories, Inc. - awarded Dr. Klein with its "Charles River Prize" for distinguished contributions to the field of laboratory animal science. Dr. Klein also sits on the Board of Chimp Haven, a holding facility funded by the NIH and made up largely of personnel from the biomedical research industry. Merck is also AAALAC-accredited.


Denver Marlow, DVM
Another well-respected veterinarian in the field of chimpanzee research, Dr. Marlow is currently Director of Laboratory Animal Resources at Oklahoma State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Previously, Dr. Marlow was the Air Force veterinarian involved in the Air Force's controversial divestiture of 111 chimpanzees to The Coulston Foundation in 1998. Many of these ex-Air Force chimpanzees are currently located at the APF on Holloman Air Force Base.


Bill Hobson, PhD
Dr. Hobson is president of Sierra Biomedical, the Charles River subsidiary that advertised the availability of chimpanzees for "preclinical" (i.e., toxicology) testing, and currently performs toxicology tests on nonhuman primates. Sierra Biomedical is also AAALAC-accredited.


Nicholas W. Lerche, DVM
Dr. Lerche is Associate Director of the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California-Davis, one of eight NIH National Primate Research Centers. Dr. Lerche performs invasive experiments on monkeys. UC-Davis is also AAALAC-accredited.


Dawn Myers
Ms. Myers is an employee of the APF.