Animal Protection of New Mexico, a local animal advocacy group, will petition the Legislature to change the animal cruelty law.  This move comes after the New Mexico Supreme Court stopped the prosecution of a former research lab that was responsible for the deaths of two chimpanzees and a near death of a third.

This case began in 2004 when Otero County District Attorney Scot Key filed criminal animal cruelty charges in state District Court against Dr. Rick Lee and Charles River Labs with the state district court.  Key alleged that the research lab didn’t provide enough veterinarian care for chimpanzees, which resulted in the death of two and near death of the third.

The court cited a veterinary exclusion and dismissed the case. If the chimpanzees were being taken care of by a regular citizen and the chimp died from neglect, the owner could be held accountalbe under animal cruelty statutes. The state Court of Appeals also upheld that decision in 2007.  The state Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeals decision.

“Charles River Lab's conduct was scandalous, but because of legal maneuvers they were able to circumvent the merits of this unprecedented case involving the deaths of two chimpanzees,” said Elisabeth Jennings, executive director of Animal Protection of New Mexico.  “However, the court’s action doesn’t change the fact that Charles River Labs deliberately handed care of critically ill chimpanzees to untrained security guards, that Rex, a chimpanzee, died after choking on his own vomit, and that Ashley died after bleeding and showing signs of shock.”

Charles River’s lawyers argued that its care at the Alamogordo Primate Facility, which houses 220 aging and diseased adult primates, was appropriate and compassionate and that its medical management fell under an exemption in the law for veterinarians.

Jennings said that the intent of lawmakers “never was to allow animal cruelty within the practice of veterinary medicine.”

Charles River Labs’ lawyer Jody Acford issued a statement Tuesday saying, “We are pleased that the Supreme Court’s decision reflects Charles River’s role as veterinary caretakers dedicated to the health and safety of the animals under our stewardship.”

The Coulston Foundation

The Coulston Foundation, which was a bio-medical research laboratory located in Alamogordo, was first to bring the chimpanzees to New Mexico.

The foundation infected captive chimpanzees with human diseases and bred them for medical experiments.  According to the Dec. 30, 1997, issue of the Wall Street Journal, laboratory founder Frederick Coulston moved on to experiment on chimpanzees when medical experiments on human prisoners was halted in the 1960s.

In the 1950s, the United States Air Force established a chimpanzee colony as part of the country’s space program with 65 infant chimpanzees.  They were used to test the life support systems aboard the Mercury capsules prior to sending manned flights into space. 

By 1970, the manned flights had become successful and the chimps were no longer needed for the space program.  The Air Force leased them to research institutions. By this time there were 141 animals which remained Air Force property.  For the following 30 years, they were used for biomedical experiments. 

Since chimpanzees and humans share more than 98 percent of the same DNA, researchers infected chimpanzees with human diseases, such as HIV, and then injected them with experimental drugs with the hope that this might lead to the discovery of cures for the diseases.  

Because chimpanzees live past the age of 60, the care became a financial liability to research labs.  In 1997, the Air Force invited bids on 141 chimps.  In 1998, 111 of the chimps went to the Coulston Foundation. 

Eventually the Coulston Foundation filed bankruptcy and Charles River Labs purchased the chimpanzees and has been responsible for their care since.  The lab currently houses 220 chimpanzees.