[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 54 (Wednesday, April 13, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2453-S2454]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. CANTWELL (for herself, Ms. Collins, Mr. Sanders, and Mr. 
        Lieberman):
  S. 810. A bill to prohibit the conducting of invasive research on 
great apes, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Environment and 
Public Works.
  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation to 
end the use of Great Apes in invasive research and urge my Senate 
colleagues to support the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act.
  The Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act would prohibit invasive 
research on all Great Apes, including gorillas, orangutans, and 
chimpanzees--who are the primary Great Apes used in research today. The 
bill would also require the immediate retirement of 500 federally-owned 
chimpanzees to great ape sanctuaries.
  Today about 1,000 chimpanzees--half of them federally owned--languish 
at great taxpayer expense in eight research laboratories across the 
Nation.
  These chimpanzees are being held or used for invasive biomedical 
research, research that may cause death, bodily injury, pain, distress, 
fear, and trauma. Invasive research practices include techniques such 
as injecting a chimpanzee with a drug that would be detrimental to its 
health, infecting a chimp with a disease, cutting a chimp or removing 
body parts, and isolation or social deprivation.
  The vast majority of these animals--between 80 and 90 percent--aren't 
actually being used in research, but instead are warehoused, simply 
wasting away in these facilities. For example, approximately half of 
the government-owned chimpanzees are being held in a facility in New 
Mexico where no research is being conducted.
  Some chimpanzees have been in labs for more than 50 years, confined 
in steel cages for most of their lives and enduring sometimes painful 
and distressing experimental procedures.
  The fact that the vast majority of federally-owned chimpanzees are 
not being used in active research, but instead are warehoused in labs 
at the taxpayer expense, underlines the futility of their continued 
confinement.
  For a single chimpanzee, lifetime care in a research facility can 
cost over $1 million, compared with $340,000 for superior care in a 
sanctuary. Ending invasive research will mean a savings of more than 
$25 million per year for the American people.
  Chimpanzees are poor research models for human illness, and they have 
been of limited use in the study of human disease. Despite how similar 
they are to us, significant differences in their immunology and disease 
progression make them ineffective models for human diseases like HIV, 
cancer, and heart disease research.
  For example, research published in the Journal of Medical Primatology 
in 2009, on hepatitis C indicates that use of chimpanzees has produced 
poor results. And the National Center for Research Resources under the 
National Institutes of Health has prohibited breeding of government-
owned chimpanzees for research. In effect, NIH has already decided that 
the chimpanzee is not an essential animal model for human medical 
research.

  Significant genetic and physiological differences between great apes 
and humans also make chimpanzees a poor research model for human 
diseases. We have spent millions of dollars over several decades on 
chimpanzee-based HIV and Hepatitis C research with no resulting 
vaccines for those diseases. Chimpanzees largely failed as a model for 
HIV because the virus does not cause illness in chimpanzees as it does 
to humans.
  These are very social, highly intelligent animals--with the ability, 
for example, to learn American Sign Language. Their intelligence and 
ability to experience emotions so similar to humans underscores how 
chimpanzees suffer intensely under laboratory conditions.
  Their psychological suffering in laboratories produces human-like 
symptoms of stress, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder 
after decades of living in isolation in small cages.
  Given their social nature and capacity for suffering and boredom due 
to lack of stimulation, the 500 privately-owned chimpanzees and 500 
federally-owned chimpanzees being held in research laboratories would 
be better off in sanctuaries. And by doing so we would save more than 
$25 million taxpayer dollars each year. This is because the cost of 
caring for a chimpanzee in a sanctuary is a fraction of the cost of 
their housing and maintenance in a laboratory. And many in the 
scientific community believe this money could be allocated to more 
effective research.
  In my home State of Washington, I am proud that we have Chimpanzee 
Sanctuary Northwest. Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest provides 
sustainable sanctuary for seven chimpanzees retired in 2008 from 
decades in research facilities.
  The United States is currently behind the rest of the world in 
outlawing this sad practice.
  Australia, Austria, Belgium, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, 
Sweden, and the United Kingdom have all banned or severely limited 
experiments on great apes. And several other countries and the European 
Union are considering similar bans as well.
  We are the only country--besides Gabon in West Africa--that is still 
holding or using chimpanzees for invasive research. It's past time for 
the United States to catch up with the rest of the world by ending this 
antiquated use of this endangered species.

[[Page S2454]]

  We are lagging behind in action, but the desire to end invasive 
research on Great Apes has been present for more than a decade. In 
1997, the National Research Council concluded that there should be a 
moratorium on further chimpanzee breeding. And the National Institutes 
of Health (NIH) has already announced an end to funding for the 
breeding of federally-owned chimpanzees for research, but this should 
be codified.
  Government needs to take action to make invasive research on 
chimpanzees illegal.
  That is why today I am introducing the bipartisan Great Ape 
Protection and Cost Savings Act, along with my colleagues Senators 
Susan Collins, Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman.
  The Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act is a commonsense policy 
reform to protect our closest living relatives in the animal kingdom 
from physical and psychological harm, and help reduce government 
spending and our federal deficit.
  Specifically, this bill will phase out the use of chimpanzees in 
invasive research over a three-year period, require permanent 
retirement to suitable sanctuaries for the 500 federally-owned 
chimpanzees currently being warehoused in research laboratories, and 
codifies the current administrative moratorium on government-funded 
breeding of chimpanzees.
  We have been delaying this action for too long. It is time to get 
this done and end this type of harmful research and end this wasteful 
government spending.

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