CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS LEADING TO MULTIPLE COUNTS OF CRIMINAL ANIMAL CRUELTY FILED AGAINST THE NIH'S "ALAMOGORDO PRIMATE FACILITY" OPERATOR

Prepared by In Defense of Animals  /   September 7th, 2004

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The July 24, 2003 pleadings state that the Committee "consists of well-respected professionals from around the country whose task is to provide guidance and advice to the APF." The Committee members include Dr. Thomas J. Rowell, director of the NIH-funded New Iberia Primate Center in Louisiana, currently the largest chimpanzee lab in the world, with approximately 400 chimpanzees and thousands of other nonhuman primates; Dr. Hilton Klein, recipient of the 2003 Charles River award for contributions to laboratory animal science, senior veterinarian with Merck Laboratories, who also sits on the board of AAALAC and the NIH-funded Chimp Haven; Dr. Denver Marlow, the veterinarian involved in the Air Force's negligent divestiture of 111 Air Force chimpanzees to The Coulston Foundation (many of whom are now housed at the APF); Dr. Nicholas W. Lerche, Associate Director of the NIH's California National Primate Research Center located at the University of California-Davis; and Dr. Bill Hobson, Director of CRL's subsidiary Sierra Biomedical, which had advertised the availability of chimpanzees for toxicology testing.

June 2001 to December 2001 - According to the above-referenced legal pleadings submitted by CRL's own attorneys, there are no euthanasia drugs at the APF for the first six months of CRL's operation of the facility. During this period, according to the pleadings, at least one chimpanzee suffered needlessly because these basic drugs were not on-site. Incredibly, CRL - flush with a $42.8 million contract from the NIH - has to borrow the drugs from The Coulston Foundation, which is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. The NIH continues to fund CRL.

July 2001 - The USDA files an unprecedented fourth set of administrative charges (USDA Charges - July 01) against The Coulston Foundation for the 1999 death of Donna, the 2000 death of Ray, inadequate veterinary care, violating the August 1999 USDA settlement, and various other transgressions. The USDA files the charges one month after Charles River Laboratories assumes from Coulston care of the 288 chimpanzees whom the NIH had taken the previous year, and also one month after the NIH stops all funding of Coulston. The USDA charges corroborate information provided by IDA's network of whistleblowers. All the administrative violations occurred while the NIH was illegally funding The Coulston Foundation with millions of tax dollars to avert the lab's bankruptcy.

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