August 24, 2010

Will Obama Allow 60-Year-Old Space Program Veterans To Retire?

New Mexico's Governor Richardson met with National Institutes of Health (NIH) officials this week in a last-ditch effort to stop NIH from moving 202 "retired" chimpanzees out of Holloman Air Force base and back into invasive experiments. NIH is moving swiftly to transfer the chimpanzees into facilities so substandard that caging conditions within them violate not only everything that we have come to know about what chimpanzees require but also federal law itself. Some of the animals are 60 years old -- some are left over from the space program. Gov. Richardson's visit came on the heels of petitions and pleas by everyone from physicians, veterinarians and primatologists to actors such as Gene Hackman, all of which have been ignored.

It was only a week earlier that Time magazine's cover story asked the question, "What's on animals' minds?" Fifteen years before, as Dr. Jane Goodall mulled over the complex relationships within chimpanzee families, Time had asked, "Do animals think?" Now the question is "What do animals think?" In the case of chimpanzees, who have been taught to use sign boards and even American Sign Language to communicate with their human captors, they think a lot.

The more pressing question is now "What is NIH thinking?" And the answer isn't befitting our nation's level of awareness about animals and its commitment to their protection.

In 2001, the U.S. Congress recognized that chimpanzees should be retired from experimentation. "Retirement" has not meant a beachfront condo or a return to the Gombe. Charities have managed to wrest away some chimpanzees, rehabilitate them from a life that, in some cases, consisted of 34 years on a concrete bench in a tiny cell or two decades in a steel cage barely any bigger than the animal's body, and put them in group care.

In many cases, "retirement" has meant a continuation of solitary confinement but no more invasive and painful procedures. Imbued with active, intelligent minds, naturally inclined to complex social relationships, as capable of falling in love and carefully raising their children as we are, they sit and wait, alone, with not even a blanket or an orange to keep them company. It is cruel and unusual punishment for a thinking being, but it is still far better than also being cut apart and sewn back up every so often, which is the fate that now awaits them again if NIH does not stop this wretched plan.

NIH has already moved 15 of the "retired" chimpanzees to the Southwest Foundation, a Texas facility that has failed to meet federal minimum standards for the care of animals. Federal minimum standards for chimpanzees, by the way, require no more than enough room in which to stand, sit and turn around -- for life. Charles River Laboratories, which operates the Alamogordo Primate Facility, another dungeon-like laboratory complex as notoriously inhumane as Devil's Island, plans to start experimenting on these and the other chimpanzees soon.

Carl Sagan once wondered if those who experiment on nonhuman primates would fare as well as their subjects if the tables were turned. At first, he thought they would. But in one experiment, in which monkeys were only permitted to eat if they pulled a lever that administered an electric shock to another monkey, the monkeys chose to abstain from food for up to 14 days, even if they didn't know the monkey being shocked. Sagan had to wonder how many human beings in the same situation would be so selfless.

If this administration is to be seen as remotely humane, President Obama must act quickly to stop the NIH officials who have chosen to ignore all that we have learned over the years about how indistinguishable chimpanzees are from us in any important way, such as the ability to feel pain and fear, love and joy, and the desire to live with others of one's own kind. The chimpanzees being moved out of Holloman are not a testament to our society's quest for understanding and compassion but rather a testament to its ability to betray, for a few bucks, those who depend on us for mercy.

August 02, 2010

Under(valued)dog to secure hearth and homeland?

The Department of Homeland Security recently announced that it wants to buy 3,000 dogs from breeders to increase its force of canines that sniff out explosives, cash and drugs. Thousands of homeless dogs languishing in animal shelters across our country would make excellent candidates for the program. Homeland Security should follow the lead of the Hearing Ear Dog Program and many police departments and fill its ranks with dogs adopted from shelters and breed rescue groups.

Instead, it plans to pay breeders to produce yet more dogs - and not just 3,000. As just 20 percent of dogs who are selected for service programs successfully complete the training process, this plan will result in another 15,000 dogs that have no hearth rug on which to lie and no one to take them to the park.

Breeding more dogs for this program is like dumping more oil into the Gulf of Mexico - it will make an existing catastrophe even worse. Our country is facing a massive dog overpopulation crisis, with 2 million to 4 million dogs euthanized each year simply because there aren't enough homes for them. President Obama realized this when he incurred the wrath of every dog lover in the United States for considering the purchase of a dog. Instead, he adopted Bo.

Statistics show that the success rate of service dogs adopted from animal shelters and rescue agencies is the same as that of dogs who are bred specifically for certification jobs. And shelters everywhere have the type of dogs Homeland Security is seeking: breeds such as Labrador retrievers, golden retrievers, German shepherds and other dogs who are outgoing, alert, active and extremely people-friendly. As anyone who has volunteered in an animal shelter or adopted a dog can attest, purposely bred dogs don't corner the market on intelligence, eagerness to please and extreme devotion to their guardians.

Adopting homeless dogs also would save taxpayers thousands of dollars because adoption fees are far lower than what breeders charge for puppies. The average price that Homeland Security paid for the 322 untrained dogs it purchased between April 2006 and June 2007 was $4,535 per dog - a cost that the department's inspector general called "reasonable"!

Working for Homeland Security could be a golden opportunity for many homeless dogs, as long as they are trained humanely using positive reinforcement, live at home with their handlers during off-duty hours and are retired with their human guardians. Working at interesting tasks side by side with someone they like and who likes them is a far richer and more fulfilling life for dogs than being locked in a crate all day while their guardian is at work, for example.

If the department can help improve homeland security, save taxpayer money and create an enormous amount of public goodwill by adopting homeless dogs, why not choose that option?