After national outcry over its plan to send 209 retired, federally owned chimpanzees back into traumatic medical research, the National Institutes of Health said it would wait. The chimps' fate would only be decided after independent experts judged whether research was necessary.
But animal advocates say the NIH has already planned to pursue the controversial program, though the Institute of Medicine report on chimp research won't be released until later in December.
Documents obtained by animal advocacy groups show that the National Center for Research Resources, the NIH's chimp-overseeing division, approved in September a $19 million proposal to move the chimpanzees from their current home in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and back into lab duty at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute.
"The NIH's actions here are deceitful and incredibly unethical," said Laura Bonar, program officer for Animal Protection of New Mexico. "The public has been misled. The public was told, 'We'll wait to see this independent report before we decide what to do.' But the NIH has already decided to move forward."
The Alamogordo chimpanzees – 184 who live there now, and 25 sent to the Texas Biomedical Research Center in 2010 – were retired in 2001 after the NIH seized them from the Coulston Foundation, a private laboratory found guilty of treating its chimps with extraordinary cruelty and carelessness.
Some of the chimpanzees had been bred by Coulston. Others were purchased from the Air Force, zoos and various laboratories, and had been subjected to decades of research. Their experiences are typified in the oldest Alamogordo chimp, a 52-year-old female named Flo, who in her research career had been knocked out with a dart gun at least 110 times; was repeatedly caged in isolation or with chimps who attacked her; had four infants taken from her within days of birth; and now suffers from seizures.
When the NIH announced in August 2010 that Flo and the other Alamogordo chimps would be returned to research duty, the public fought back. Animal rights advocates and concerned citizens were joined by scientists who said invasive medical research on chimpanzees was morally troubling and unjustified by the limited clinical benefits.
The last time chimpanzee research had received so much attention was in the early 1990s, when they appeared – misleadingly – to be a promising tool in AIDS research. In the intervening years, cognitive studies and natural observations established beyond doubt that chimpanzees are, as befits the closest living relative of humans, deeply intelligent and emotional creatures for whom captive medical research is akin to torture.
In January of this year, the NIH acceded to public pressure, announcing that the Alamogordo chimps wouldn't be moved until the Insitute of Medicine – an independent group that provides expert scientific advice to the government – had reviewed the medical need for chimpanzees.
At that time, the NCRR had already received a grant application from Texas Biomedical to support a full-fledged research program on the entire Alamogordo colony. The program would involve experiments with HIV, hepatitis viruses, papilloma viruses, and "uncharacterized viruses." Chimpanzees would be routinely knocked out with dart guns and subjected to organ biopsies, cerebrospinal fluid collection and internal probes.
Texas Biomedical also asked for promotional funds. The program's long-term goal, beyond immediate scientific exploration, would be to "create a paradigm shift in the way investigators think about biomedical research with chimpanzees" and "attract investigators who haven't previously used chimpanzees in research." On Sept. 5, the NCRR approved the grant, disbursing $471,185 for the next year and recommending $18.6 million over the following four years.
"It seems pretty clear that NIH’s actions indicate that they plan to move the chimps regardless of what the IOM report says," said Kathleen Conlee, animal research director with the Humane Society, which has pushed the federal government to end invasive chimpanzee research.
According to the NCRR, that $471,185 reflects only the costs of caring for the 25 Alamogordo chimpanzees already at Texas Biomedical, and does not represent a first payment on a larger plan. "The grant award was adjusted to provide support for only the 25 NIH-owned chimpanzees," wrote Watson in an email to Bonar.
But Bonar doubts their intentions. "The award this year is for that amount. But in year two, year three, year four, year five, you see it increasing. Those amounts coinicide with what Texas Biomed asked for all the chimps," said Bonar, who said the NIH could have made a short-term support agreement.
When asked for clarification, the NCRR referred Wired.com to its grant policy statement, which explains that approval "expresses NIH's intention to provide continued financial support for the project" but "are not guarantees by NIH that the project will be funded or will be funded at those levels and create no legal obligation to provide funding" beyond the first budget period – in this case, the one-year support for 25 chimps.
"I feel like they're talking out both sides of their mouths," said Bonar. "They're saying, 'We look forward to this rigorous review and analysis.' But in the meantime, they're also saying, 'Texas Biomed, here's our plan for you for the next five years, and it includes cruel and invasive testing on all these chimps.'"
"I am very concerned that the future budget is already laid out," Conlee said. The NCRR "give no indication that plans may change, or that chimpanzee research is being questioned, even though this was awarded in the midst of the IOM study. It’s as if there isn’t an IOM study going on."
The NCRR's recent track record with their chimpanzees is not exemplary. In November, they declined to address allegations of large-scale, contract-violating chimpanzee breeding at the New Iberia Research Center, the largest U.S. primate research facility. The lab's director subsequently admitted that breeding took place, after which the NCRR launched a technicality-based defense that earned a rare and stinging rebuke from the influential journal Nature.
"I would guess Harold Watson would say, 'We're waiting to decide what will come," Bonar said. "But every action shows they're already paving the way to move the chimps."
Image: Two Alamogordo chimpanzees named Heidi and Robbie. Images acquired through Freedom of Information Act Request by Project R&R. (National Institutes of Health)
