NIH SUED OVER CHIMP LAB DOCUMENTS
Feds Withholding Records On Electrocutions, Other Deaths, IDA Charges

Bethesda, MD (September 13, 2004) - In Defense of Animals has filed a federal lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health (NIH) because the agency has not released documents about electrocutions and other chimpanzee deaths at the NIH-owned Alamogordo Primate Facility (APF).

The suit, filed on September 10 in federal district court in Washington, DC, alleges that the NIH has to date failed to comply with the Freedom of Information Act by withholding the records. The suit is being handled pro bono by Spriggs & Hollingsworth, a Washington, DC law firm.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of unprecedented criminal animal cruelty charges filed on September 7 against Charles River Laboratories, the NIH contractor operating the APF, and veterinarian Dr. Rick Lee, Charles River’s APF Director. This historic criminal complaint, detailed search warrant and related records are available at http://www.NIHchimpcruelty.com.

“The unprecedented criminal cruelty charges filed last week reveal profound suffering and cruelty at the APF, which is owned and managed by the NIH,” said IDA Research Director Eric Kleiman. “Is the agency trying to hide more of the same by withholding these records?”

In addition to further information on the electrocution deaths of three chimpanzees in January 2004, the group is seeking records related to 14 chimpanzees at the APF who had been kept for years – with the full knowledge of the NIH and the U.S. Department of Agriculture – in solitary confinement in chambers known as “isolettes.” Some of the chimpanzees became so physically debilitated and mentally traumatized – suffering tendon and bone damage, muscle atrophy, hair and weight loss, and severe depression – that they had to be euthanized.

According to IDA’s network of whistleblowers, Muna, one of the chimpanzees imprisoned alone, was discovered dead in April 2003. An autopsy revealed that Muna, who was just 20 years old and used in hepatitis experiments, was missing three lobes of her liver; the remaining lobe was disintegrating. Years of painful research biopsies had literally destroyed this vital organ.

“The NIH is ultimately responsible for the intense suffering the chimpanzees have endured for years at the APF,” concluded Kleiman. “The withholding of these records is just the latest example of this agency’s longstanding policy of covering up the true conditions for animals incarcerated at the APF and other NIH-funded labs.”

IDA is an international animal advocacy and rescue organization based in Mill Valley, CA. The group’s investigations have made history by leading to the criminal cruelty charges filed against the APF last week as well as the closure of The Coulston Foundation primate testing lab in 2002.