Chimps' future prompts debate over New Mexico primate lab A decision to move 186 chimpanzees from a southern New Mexico facility to Texas is pitting government officials and scientists against a coalition of elected officials and animal rights advocates, including New Mexico's governor and famed primate researcher Dr. Jane Goodall. The chimps have spent the past decade undisturbed by medical researchers. But the National Institutes of Health has decided to cut government costs by moving the animals to a San Antonio primate facility, where animal rights activists worry they'll be improperly poked, prodded and stabbed in the name of science. Gov. Bill Richardson and others would prefer to see the chimps' current home — a former biomedical research lab at Holloman Air Force Base — converted into a chimpanzee sanctuary. After visiting the site Tuesday, the governor said the animals are in excellent health, and he suggested the New Mexico lab could instead become a behavioral research facility. Animal Protection Chief Tweets Against Animal Rights Denver's 7NEWS has discovered that Scot Dutcher has “tweeted” prolifically against many animal rights efforts. Dutcher is the chief of the Department of Agriculture's Animal Protection Bureau and is the lead investigator in the state's animal cruelty cases. Officials said many of those posts were made on state time, using state computers. New Zealand school under fire over possum-throwing contest The contest, in which students swung possum carcasses over their heads and hurled them across the playground, was unacceptable, the New Zealand Royal Society for the Protection of Animals said. RSPCA manager Danny Auger said he had received three complaints about the competition at Colyton School, in the North Island, and would raise concerns with its teachers. Lab shuts down after animal rights video released A private laboratory involved in animal testing has halted research and will hand over its animals, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced yesterday (AP). The shutdown comes after the animal rights organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), released an undercover video showing how animals were treated at Professional Laboratory and Research Services, based in Corapeake, North Carolina. According to PETA, the company had contracts from several major pharmaceutical companies to test products on animals. Spanish region votes on regulating bull festivals The northeastern Spanish region that banned bullfighting this summer is now going to vote on regulating village festivals with customs such as setting bulls' horns on fire and having people dodge them. Animal rights activists says those traditions in Catalonia are cruel and repulsive and should be banned as the Catalan parliament did with bullfighting in July. The Parliament is going to vote Wednesday on filling a legal vacuum with a resolution that sets safety regulations and other norms for these festivals, popular mainly in the south of Catalonia. BM
