The BUAV is supporting the Great Ape Protection Act (GAPA) - a federal bill introduced in the US Congress which, if passed, would end all invasive biomedical experiments on chimpanzees and other great apes in the U.S.  The campaign for the bill, Project R&R: Release and Restitution for Chimpanzees in U.S. Labs, is being led by the BUAV’s U.S. sister organisation, the New England Anti-Vivisection Society (NEAVS).

Despite a ban on the use of great apes in research in the UK and some other European countries, the USA remains the single largest user and holder of chimpanzees in laboratories in the world.
 
The GAPA bill has already a full 145 co-sponsors in the US Congress, and to help build momentum, NEAVS is now collecting signatures of support from scientific organisations and individuals around the world.

Dr. Theodora Capaldo, President of NEAVS said, “The Great Ape Protection Act is an important step towards better and more humane science. Decades of research on chimpanzees have shown that they are a poor scientific model to study human disease. Chimpanzees have endured enormous physical and psychological life long suffering. And, millions of tax-payer dollars that could have gone to more productive and promising alternatives research have been wasted.”

Michelle Thew, Chief Executive of the BUAV said, “The BUAV is delighted to support our sister organisation NEAVS in this historic campaign to end US testing on chimpanzees.  There are no morally relevant differences between great apes and humans that would justify doing to them what we would never consider doing to human beings.  We urge the U.S. government to join the growing list of countries that recognise this and ban research on great apes.”

You can help!

Please sign NEAVS’ world solidarity petition to end chimpanzee research in the US:
http://neavs.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=Petition_NonUS_RR

For more information go to http://www.releasechimps.org/

13th May 2010