CRIMINAL ANIMAL CRUELTY CHARGES FILED AGAINST NIH CHIMP LAB

Alamogordo, NM (September 8, 2004) - For the first time in U.S. history, criminal charges for multiple counts of animal cruelty have been filed against an animal research laboratory for its operator's alleged institutional neglect and abandonment of chimpanzees, In Defense of Animals (IDA) and Animal Protection of New Mexico (APNM) announced today.

The unprecedented complaint, filed by Otero County, New Mexico District Attorney Scot Key, alleges that negligence surrounding the deaths of the chimpanzees Rex and Ashley, and the near-death of Topsy, at the Alamogordo Primate Facility (APF) constitute criminal animal cruelty. The APF, located on Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico, is owned by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is legally responsible for the day-to-day management of the lab. From 1993 to 2001, the APF lab was privately operated by The Coulston Foundation, which folded in 2002 after IDA and its network of whistleblowers uncovered repeated violations of federal administrative laws relating to animal welfare and data integrity during an eight-year campaign.

The criminal charges were lodged against NIH contractor Charles River Laboratories, Inc. and Charles River's APF director and veterinarian Dr. Rick Lee, whom the company had touted as a world-renowned expert in chimpanzee care, research and veterinary training. If convicted, the defendants could face a maximum of almost three years in jail. The criminal charges, search warrant and related records are available at http://www.NIHchimpcruelty.com

District Attorney Key's investigation of possible criminal wrongdoing in the treatment of chimpanzees at the APF was prompted by IDA, which provided his office with evidence from its network of whistleblowers indicating grave and willful negligence on the part of APF management.

Based on whistleblower information, IDA informed the D.A. that APF officials repeatedly left injured or dying chimpanzees in the "care" of untrained maintenance/security workers. Ashley had been bleeding much of the day she died after suffering a wound to her "sex skin" and exhibited possible signs of shock before being abandoned by the APF animal care staff. Nine months later, Topsy suffered a similar wound, and almost bled to death after APF animal care staff left the lab. Rex, who had been ill for months, was unconscious and vomiting the day he died. APF senior staff ordered that animal caretakers stop the suctioning of vomit from his mouth before leaving; Rex was found dead hours later, with vomit in his mouth and trachea.

The criminal charges filed by the D.A. corroborate revelations by IDA's network of whistleblowers.

"These historic charges are a searing indictment of the NIH, which bears the ultimate responsibility for the conscious criminal negligence apparently committed against these defenseless chimpanzees," said IDA president Elliot M. Katz, DVM. "We are grateful to District Attorney Scot Key for his courageous action to hold accountable those responsible for this shocking cruelty."

Katz noted that IDA provided the D.A.'s office with sworn affidavits from two veterinarians who were uniformly appalled by the allegations now corroborated by the criminal charges. One of them, C. James Mahoney, DVM, PhD, a primate veterinarian with over twenty years of clinical chimpanzee experience, described the management of the APF as "fundamentally twisted and despicable." Perhaps most damning, ex-Coulston Foundation veterinarian Brit Oiulfstad, DVM, MPH stated in her sworn affidavit that she had never witnessed or heard of anything at the failed Coulston lab that even approached the willful cruelty allegedly committed by NIH contractor Charles River, which she described as violating "the most basic precepts of veterinary ethics and basic human decency."

"The gross negligence and alleged criminal cruelty at this NIH chimpanzee lab are just symptoms of the agency's overall mismanagement of the federal chimpanzee research program, which currently holds more than 1000 chimpanzees prisoner in research laboratories," Katz continued.

He recalled the NIH's relationship with the defunct Coulston Foundation as an example of this mismanagement. The NIH continued to fund the Foundation will millions of tax dollars annually, even after the lab was found by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration to have repeatedly violated federal animal welfare and data integrity laws. The agency's continued funding of the Coulston lab precipitated a broad Congressional investigation, launched in 2003, of the NIH's management and oversight of grants.

"The years of Coulston Foundation negligence funded by this corrupt agency were just the beginning," Katz observed. "This very same lab, now under different management, has apparently descended into willful criminal cruelty under the direct ownership, responsibility and oversight of the NIH."

Criminal charges against a research laboratory were made possible because the New Mexico legislature recognized in 2001 that an exemption for research labs under the state's criminal animal cruelty statute was not justifiable. An amendment, passed after intense lobbying efforts by Animal Protection of New Mexico, removed this blanket exemption for research facilities (such blanket exemptions are common in many states). The impetus for the New Mexico legislature's action was primarily the ongoing abuses at the Coulston lab, and the federal government's inability to stop them.

Because the APF is now defined as a "federal research facility," the USDA, which enforces the federal Animal Welfare Act, has no jurisdiction over this lab. Oversight, therefore, lies solely with the NIH, which also is responsible for management of the lab. Consequently, District Attorney Key is the only legitimate law enforcement officer capable of protecting these chimpanzees.

Charles River - a multinational conglomerate that is the world's largest breeder of animals for experiments - had 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 has also touted its "Humane Care Initiative," in which it claims the "moral imperative" that animals under its care be "treated with respect and compassion."

"These historic criminal charges reveal the folly of so-called 'respect and compassion' supposedly practiced by both Charles River and the NIH," concluded APNM Executive Director Lisa Jennings. "Based on its record of negligence, The Coulston Foundation met with an appropriate fate - universal criticism and collapse. Where is the same accountability for the NIH, Charles River and the whole field of chimpanzee research?"

IDA is an international animal advocacy and rescue organization based in Mill Valley, CA. APNM is a statewide animal protection organization based in Albuquerque, NM.