Chimp Trauma

About a thousand captive chimpanzees are trapped in labs across the United States

"Regis, born in a lab, was only 2 years old when he was treated for his first stress-related injury — he had chewed his finger nail completely off," Regis, fearful if left alone, suffers severe anxiety attacks in which he nearly stops breathing."

A new study co-authored by Dr. Theodora Capaldo, the president of the New England Anti-Vivisection Society's (NEAVS) Project R&R: Release & Restitution for Chimpanzees in U.S. Laboratories, further "documents the severe emotional trauma chimpanzees suffer as a result of laboratory use and confinement," and "underscore[s] the ethical implications for the practices of cross-fostering nonhuman primates and their use in research."

"Developmental Context Effects on Bicultural Post-Trauma Self Repair in Chimpanzees" was published in the September issue, Vol 45(5), of the American Psychological Association journal Developmental Psychology.

But there is hope. A federal bill, the Great Ape Protection Act, has been introduced to the U.S. Congress. If passed, the bill would, according to the non-profit animal welfare group In Defense of Animals, "end unbearable anguish" for the approximately 1,000 chimpanzees currently languishing in American laboratories.

Dr. Capaldo says, "Chimpanzee research must stop if we are to end the suffering caused by decisions -- both scientifically flawed and ethically unjustifiable -- to use them as living test tubes."

GET INVOLVED

• Sign a Project R&R Release & Restitution for Chimpanzees in United States Laboratories petition urging Congress to pass the Great Ape Protection Act (H.R. 1326) (U.S. citizens)
  
• Volunteer with the Great Apes Project, which defends the rights of the great primates to live in liberty in their natural habitats
• Sign a PETA petition urging President Obama to ban military trauma exercises on animals
• Support the Fauna Foundation chimp sanctuary

RELATED POSTS

• Protecting Great Apes (August 13, 2009)
• Chimp Apocalypse Now (June 15, 2009)
• A Peculiar Evil Grows in Austria (May 26, 2009)
• Military Torture: Not Just for Humans (May 17, 2009)
  
• Killing Congo's Chimps (March 29, 2009)
  
• Tracking Our Second-Closest Relatives (March 24, 2009)
• The Gloomy Dean (January 30, 2009)

image: chimpanzee Regis (credit: Fauna Foundation via Project R&R)