Ask Your Senator to Vote for Chimpanzees

Please send an e-mail that asks your U.S. senator to support the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act. This important legislation will end the use of chimpanzees in invasive experiments, permanently end federal breeding programs, and release federally owned chimpanzees to permanent sanctuaries. We have provided some text for you, but please take a minute to add your own language to the letter. They take individually written emails more seriously, so please write your own message using some of the points below. I am writing as a constituent to urge you to co-sponsor the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act (S. 810) and vote in support of it when it comes before your committee. SCIENCE The Institute of Medicine recently released a report in which they found that chimpanzee experiments are not necessary to advance human health. More effective and ethical alternative research models are available. Although chimpanzees are our closest genetic relatives, significant genetic and physiological differences between humans and chimpanzees render them poor models for human health research. Despite decades of research and spending millions of my tax dollars, there is still no cure or vaccine for HIV/AIDS or hepatitis C, the two areas of research for which chimpanzees have been most commonly used. Non-invasive genomic and behavioral research is permitted under the legislation and could be accomplished in sanctuaries and other natural settings. ETHICS The United States is the last country in the world known to be using chimpanzees for experimentation. Around 1,000 chimpanzees are currently languishing in U.S. laboratories. Many of these chimpanzees have been in labs since birth—they have never known the feeling of grass on their feet or a world without walls. COST This bill, which will save $250 million over 10 years by phasing out the use of chimpanzees in invasive experiment, had a positive hearing in the Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife today. Moving chimpanzees to sanctuaries where there is a higher standard of care will save millions in tax payer dollars. Please vote "yes" on S.810 when the bill comes before the Committee on the Environment and Public Works.