In recent years, the animal protection community has celebrated a number of important victories involving chimpanzees in research. Two recent success stories involve chimpanzees at the now-defunct Coulston Foundation in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and those who were used in United States Air Force experiments during the 1950s and their descendants.
The Coulston Foundation
The Coulston Foundation (TCF), a now-defunct biomedical research facility in Alamogordo, New Mexico, had a well-documented history of providing substandard care to the hundreds of nonhuman primates housed in its facilities and used in its research programs.
TCF officially closed its doors in September 2002, the result of its own financial collapse and years of regulatory violations brought forth by government agencies. Dr. Carole Noon, founder and director of the Florida-based Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care (CCCC), purchased TCF on the condition that the facility donate all of its animals to her sanctuary. The Kalamazoo, Michigan-based Arcus Foundation provided Noon with a $3.7 million grant to purchase TCF. Many other local and national animal protection organizations provided additional financial support.
History of Coulston
Coulston, which once housed 650 chimpanzees and was the largest captive chimpanzee colony in the world, was founded by Dr. Frederick Coulston, a toxicologist with a long history in the "business" of primates. Coulston was one of the first scientists in the 1940s to use primates in the field of human physiology research. In the 1980s, Coulston founded the White Sands Research Center, a small primate colony and contract-testing laboratory in Alamogordo.
In 1993, Coulston took over a primate lab operated by New Mexico State University (NMSU). Shortly thereafter, White Sands and the NMSU laboratory facilities were combined into one large entity known as The Coulston Foundation. At that time, Coulston oversaw approximately 500 chimpanzees and more than a thousand monkeys.
In the years that followed TCF was charged with several serious violations by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Formal charges against the facility ranged from inadequate veterinary care to conducting unapproved research protocols to negligent deaths. In 1999, TCF had to surrender nearly 300 chimpanzees to settle violations of the Animal Welfare Act. TCF also faced possible disqualification by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for widespread and continuous violations of Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) regulations. In a second warning letter sent to TCF in October 2001, the FDA informed the lab that it would not accept studies conducted after December 1999, when the first FDA warning letter was issued to no apparent effect.
In July 2001, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) terminated funding to TCF, which severely crippled the lab because it reportedly received as much as two thirds of its annual budget from the federal agency. Early in 2002, the First National Bank of Alamogordo filed a foreclosure lawsuit in a New Mexico District Court, claiming that the facility owed more than $1.16 million in outstanding loans.
Air Force Chimpanzees
In the 1950s, the United States Air Force used a group of chimpanzees to study the effects of space flight on humans. These chimpanzees were exposed to adverse conditions in order to make space flight possible. Humans then orbited the earth and became legends, but the chimpanzees were soon forgotten. These same animals and their descendants were used by the Air Force for further biomedical research.
In June 1998, the Air Force divested itself of 141 of these chimpanzees. Thirty of the chimps were awarded to Primarily Primates in San Antonio, Texas, while the other 111 chimpanzees remained at The Coulston Foundation in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Concerns about transferring the chimpanzees to The Coulston Foundation surfaced due to Coulston's history of violating the Animal Welfare Act.
As a result of the decision to transfer the chimpanzees to Coulston, the Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care (CCCC), in conjunction with The Doris Day Animal League, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Air Force. In October 1999, a court settlement determined that 21 of the Air Force chimpanzees were to be moved from TCF to the CCCC. On July 17, 2001, 21 Air Force chimps safely completed their journey from Coulston to the CCCC in St. Lucie County, Florida.
In September 2002, CCCC purchased the collapsed Coulston Foundation, allowing for the permanent retirement of 61 monkeys and 266 chimpanzees, some of whom are former Air Force chimpanzees.
Sources: PR Newswire, The Food and Drug Administration, US News and World Report, The HSUS
