She sat in the corner, a blanket scrunched underneath her with a toddler clutching to her chest. The baby seemed anxious, and the mother caressed its head several times before reaching down and pulling at the cloth. A crowd of lookers had gathered at the zoo’s enclosure, hoping to catch a glimpse of the new arrival. The mother chimp, not overly impressed, turned her head and studied us for a moment as she worked the blanket free. Carefully she draped the fabric over her head, and ensconced herself and her baby within the confines of the instant tent. She turned her back to us humans and started rocking her baby. The onlookers parted and I marveled at her ability to resolve her dislike of public scrutiny.

Chimpanzees are amazingly human-like. Primatologist, Jane Goodall blazed the way in wild chimpanzee research. In 1960, at 26 years of age, she headed to Lake Tanganyika in East Africa and began her studies, living in the jungles alongside her subjects. During her years of observation, she recorded many unknown behaviors of chimpanzees.

A huge discovery was made when she witnessed chimps hunting and eating bush pigs and other mammals. Thought to be primarily vegetarians, chimps became more like us with every flesh eating meal they took. Another example of their humanness was seen with the adoption of a three-year-old orphan by another adolescent chimp that was not closely related to the youngster. Tool making was a revelation. When Goodall saw a chimp shred a branch of all leaves and then insert the bare tip into a termite mound in order to withdraw a meal, she became the first human to document such highly evolved abilities.

We learned that chimps partake in friendly physical contact, live in community groups as large as 40-60 members, and use their voices to signal danger, joy and personal identification. They do not like to live alone, and enjoy social activities such as grooming and waterfall dancing.

So chimps, being similar to humans, became the targets for our research. Medical research labs are a profitable business. They often receive public funding and are frequently secluded from scrutiny. Sure, there are supposed to be laws in place to protect the primates confined in small steel cages, but often violations exist and no one is the wiser.

Recently The Humane Society of the United States exposed tapes of their undercover work at the New Iberia Research Center in Louisiana. The agents were there for nine months recording what they saw in a facility that houses 6000 primates and one the largest chimpanzee populations within its walls. New Iberia has helped develop vaccines for hepatitis and does contract work for pharmaceutical companies. They also receive millions of dollars in public funding.

The HSUS compiled a 108-page complaint claiming 338 possible violations under the federal Animal Welfare Act, which was sent to the U.S. Department. of Agriculture Some of the acts recorded include, a lab worker striking a contained monkey’s teeth in order to get him to open his mouth, another worker hitting a terrified infant monkey in the head when it attempts to bite at a finger, and the carelessness of the staff attending to primates already sedated that are falling off high tables.

New Iberia houses approximately 26 elderly chimps that have lived there for over 40 years. They have seen, heard and felt enough pain to last fifty lifetimes.

On March 5, 2009, a bill was introduced called the Great Ape Protection Act, H.R.1326. RepresentativesEdolphusTown (D-NY), David Reichert (R-WA), Jim Langevin (D-RI), and Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), are the sponsors of this legislation. The bill hopes to do several things:

1. Phase out the use of approximately 1000 chimps used in invasive U.S. research
2. Retire approximately 500 federally owned chimps to permanent sanctuaries where they will no longer endure torturous procedures
3. End the breeding program of federally owned chimps used for research.

If this bill passes, it will end the misery of many primates. They will no longer have to endure painful isolation, which often results in self-mutation, the attack of powerful dart guns where the chimps fall from high ledges onto concrete floors once they are stunned, the use of sedation squeeze cages, and tubes forced down their throats.

In order to get bill H.R.1326 passed, however, members of Congress need to know how the public feels about this issue. If you believe invasive, inhumane research is unacceptable, please call, write or email your congressmen today. The bill is pending so we can’t delay.

In a taped interview, Goodall, in her quiet unassuming voice said, “(chimps) teach us we are part of the animal kingdom not separated from it.”

How right she is. Chimpanzees and other apes have emotions, social groups and high intelligence. They live as we do in communities that work, live and love together. We humans have an obligation to look closely at how our actions affect the natural world. We must also examine how our treatment of animals we deem necessary for our own medical needs, affects the lives of those creatures that have no say in the matter.

“It’s time we took stock,” Goodall said, “and realized we must be better stewards than we have been for the sake of unborn generations.”

Wouldn’t stopping the use of great apes, or any primates in research labs, be a wonderful way to start?