Forty years ago, the New York Blood Center purchased a group of chimpanzees to study hepatitis infections in Liberia. Ten years after the research project ended, the center has cut off promised funding, leaving the chimp colony to rely on donations.
The 66 chimps are now on a reduced feeding schedule, as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has assumed the $30,000 per month cost of care, according to The New York Times. HSUS and conservation groups have started an online fundraising drive to support the chimps, while a Change.org petition has urged the New York Blood Center (NYBC) to restore funding.
'If nothing happens, the chimps will perish,' Betsy Brotman, the former director of the NYBC’s research facility, told Motherboard. “All of them.”
Starting in 1975, NYBC brought chimps to its research laboratory -- Vilab II -- in Liberia to test hepatitis vaccines. Chimps can contract hepatitis B and C, though their immune systems can deal with the infections better than humans. The work done at the lab led to a hepatitis B vaccine and a safe sterilization process for blood transfusions.
NYBC's research concluded in 2005, and the chimps that remained were sent to live uncaged on a batch of six mangrove islands amid a Liberian river. Liberian staff members of the lab were paid by NYBC to continue care for the chimps, which, according to Motherboard, were sterilized, though some sterilizations were not effective.
In January, NYBC announced it would soon halt the around $380,000 in yearly payments dedicated to care and food for the chimp colony. Despite a lack of a transition plan, the non-profit said the funding would cease in 60 days.
HSUS head Waybe Pacelle criticized NYBC officials for going back on their word.
'The Blood Center previously committed itself to the lifetime care of these chimpanzees, its officials publicly announcing their ethical responsibility to do so and indicating the start of an endowment for this purpose a decade ago,' he wrote in a recent blog post. 'Officials there are now repudiating this commitment, stating heartlessly that the organization 'never had any obligation for care for the chimps, contractual or otherwise.''
The chimps are almost completely reliant on their caretakers for sustenance, as there is a little natural food on the islands, according to Agnes Souchal, general manager of the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center in Cameroon.
Souchal said a decrepit drinking water system on the islands was only recently repaired, so the chimps finally have a reliable source of water. Many concerned parties want NYBC to assume more responsibility in the chimps' long-term well-being.
'There is no other option,' Brotman said. 'The Blood Center must find some group and give them funding for the lifetime care of the animals that is not the Liberian government.'
The fundraising effort, started on May 28, has garnered nearly $26,000 of its $150,000 goal as of 4:15 pm ET, May 29. http://rt.com/usa/263329-chimps-abandoned-liberia-island/
Given that the chimps were used to advance medical knowledge and improve health for humans should there be an onus on the NYBC to ensure the chimps' welfare?
If the research is now finished does that responsibility end?
Given that many of us may have benefited from either the hepatitis vaccine (either directly or indirectly) or from a safe blood transfusion, does the onus now fall on us all, as humans to contribute to this cause?
What do you think?
Image source
It is proposed that everyone who has benefited from research into hepatitis should help save the Liberian chimps