According to the contract between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Charles River, the NIH's National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) is legally responsible for the "day-to-day management" of the APF, including its "associated animal activities." This places ultimate responsibility for the multiple counts of alleged criminal animal cruelty with the NIH.


Judith Vaitukaitis, MD
Dr. Vaitukaitis is the head of NCRR, and signed the Memorandum of Understanding in which NCRR takes responsibility for the "day-to-day management" of the APF. IDA had cc'd Dr. Vaitukaitis in our September 12, 2003 notification to Congress about District Attorney Scot Key's criminal investigation of the APF. IDA never heard from Dr. Vaitukaitis or anyone else at the NIH; we do not know if she or anyone else from the NIH ever contacted District Attorney Key.


Raymond O'Neill, PhD
Dr. O'Neill is the Project Officer for the NIH contract with Charles River Laboratories, and is employed at NCRR. Dr. O'Neill also runs NCRR's "Chimpanzee Management Program," a broad program that oversees almost 1,000 chimpanzees imprisoned at the following NIH-funded chimpanzee labs: The Alamogordo Primate Facility, the University of Louisiana New Iberia Research Center, and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Bastrop, Texas. In addition, the NIH funds two other chimpanzee labs having over 400 chimpanzees, which are both NIH National Primate Research Centers overseen by NCRR: the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta, and the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research National Primate Research Center in San Antonio, Texas.


Elias Zerhouni, MD
Dr. Zerhouni is the Director of the NIH. IDA cc'd him in our September 12, 2003 notification to Congress about District Attorney Key's criminal investigation of the APF. IDA never heard from Dr. Zerhouni.