GOOD LIFE AWAITS PRIMATES

Former Lab Animals were Saved by an Intense Campaign by In Defense of Animals

by Rene Romo, Southern Bureau

Copyright 2002 Albuquerque Journal (November 12, 2002), page A1

ALAMOGORDO -- The last time Suzanne Roy visited the former Coulston Foundation biomedical research site was six years ago.

At that time, she and other animal-rights activists protested outside the lab's LaVelle Road gates with make-believe tombstones for the chimps who had died there.

On Monday, Roy program director for the Mill Valley, Calif.-based group In Defense of Animals was an honored guest inside the former lab, which is now a chimp retirement community run since September by the Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care (CCCC). Frederick Coulston, the former lab's head, sold the Alamogordo research facility to the center for $3.7 million and handed over more than 200 chimps and 60 macaques.

In Defense of Animals had waged an aggressive eight-year campaign against Coulston, using whistle-blowing veterinarians to prompt tough regulatory action by the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Coulston's revenues eventually shriveled up and the lab got out of chimp-based research.

"This is certainly the biggest victory IDA has ever experienced, because of the magnitude of the scale," Roy said Monday after touring the Alamogordo site. The chimps spend their days without the threat of becoming subjects for experiments.

The long-term plan is to move the 219 chimpanzees, who range in age from 2 years to 43, out of their cement and steel cages to CCCC's south Florida sanctuary, where they will live in protected, open colonies with room to run and socialize.

Moving all the chimps could take several years, said primatologist Carole Noon, CCCC director, who moved to Alamogordo to oversee the chimps' care while planning for their eventual move.

The macaques will be retired to a wildlife sanctuary near San Antonio, Texas, within about a year, Noon said.

Roy arrived in New Mexico last week on behalf of IDA to pick up a special honor, the Spirit of the Mission Award, presented Saturday in Santa Fe by Animal Protection of New Mexico Inc., the group's partner in the anti-Coulston campaign.

Roy was presented with a framed letter to IDA from pioneering primatologist Jane Goodall that said: "When you began your efforts almost a decade ago, Coulston seemed invincible, with millions of dollars in funding and a sinister ability to carry on despite his violations of the Animal Welfare Act and the large fines imposed."

But, Goodall continued, "you and your team ... were determined, and you wouldn't give up."

Roy said that if it had not been for Noon's willingness to take on the long-term care of the chimps, as well as a grant from Michigan-based Arcus Foundation, the campaign to shut down Coulston might not have had such a happy ending.

Monday was the first time Roy and several colleagues, such as Lisa Jennings, executive director of Animal Protection, were able to take a close look at the caged chimps they had championed for so long.

In one cage they saw a female chimp named Tammy, whose right leg had been amputated below the knee for reasons not reflected in the records Coulston left behind, Noon said. Tammy, now about 38 years old, was born in Africa and taken captive as an infant when her mother was killed, Noon said.

Five cages away is Doc, Tammy's 15-year-old son. Chimps in the wild typically live in large colonies, with bonds between mothers and offspring lasting for years, but in the former Coulston facility, the chimps live caged alone or in pairs.

"It's very emotional," Roy said of her tour of the Alamogordo site. "When you look into their eyes, you can see so much intelligence, it's like looking into the eyes of another person."

The center is collecting funds for the ongoing maintenance and long-term care of the chimps. Interested donors may contact the Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care, P.O. Box 12220, Fort Pierce FL 34979, or go on-line at http://www.savethechimps.org.