Thomas Rowell, director of New Iberia, said in an e-mail to Wired Science that "there has been a lot of information (and misinformation) passed back and forth," and and declined to speak further until the NIH review is complete.Īccording to Rowell, all 28 chimpanzees born accidentally to federally owned parents are now supported financially by the University of Lafayette, the Louisiana school near New Iberia. "I appreciate your offer to meet regarding this issue, but I do not feel that is necessary."Īsked to explain the discrepancy and to discuss chimpanzee breeding regulations, the NCRR responded through spokeswoman Bobbi Gardner that "the NIH will neither confirm nor deny matters which may be under review." "NIH takes all allegations brought to our attention seriously and we will take appropriate steps to review and address potential cases of noncompliance," Watson wrote to Conlee. "NCRR is not sure how the number 123 was arrived at but would be willing to evaluate any additional records that were obtained by other animal rights groups and follow up with if there are any discrepancies." "NCRR has confirmed that does not have an active breeding program involving federally owned chimpanzees and that the facility is committed to honoring the NCRR moratorium," they wrote. In its 2011 Senate budget request, the NCRR responded to budget committee concerns about New Iberia's breeding by citing their number of 28. Exactly how New Iberia and the Humane Society came to such wildly different conclusions is unknown, and whether the NCRR has tried to find out isn't clear. Perplexingly, New Iberia's number of 28 is based on the same records from which the Humane Society drew its figure of 123. The records describe the lineage of chimpanzees born in the colony (see right).Īccording to New Iberia, however, only 28 chimpanzees were born to a federally owned parent - a number that represents a few isolated mistakes, since corrected by improved colony management and neutering procedures, rather than ongoing and perhaps knowing wrongdoing. The Humane Society's charges are based on records provided by New Iberia to the NIH until 2009. Respecting the ban is a condition of the grant. New Iberia receives approximately $1,000,000 annually from the National Center for Research Resources, the branch of the NIH that oversees chimpanzees, to maintain its chimp colony. That qualification is critical: While the National Institutes of Health permits New Iberia to breed privately owned chimpanzees - which is how it satisfies its own need for new research chimps - they've banned federally owned chimp breeding since 1995. Some of the chimpanzees are owned privately by companies or universities, and others are government owned.Īccording to the Humane Society, 123 surviving chimpanzees born at New Iberia between 20, and another 14 who died, had at least one federally owned parent. New Iberia and the Humane Society are old adversaries: In 2009, undercover video taken by Humane Society activists led to a government investigation of disturbing Animal Welfare Act violations at the facility, which houses 350 chimpanzees used in disease research.
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