Chimps’ similarity to humans makes the invaluable for scientific research.
Chimp research helped to produce a vaccine for hepatitis B and another is headed for hepatitis C.
But it’s still controversial because of the uncertain condition in which the chimps are kept and the tests performed on them.
There are literally only two places in the world where chimp testing is still legal. Gabon in central Africa… and the US.
The president of the humane society said:
“This is a very different moment than ever before. Now is the time to get these chimps out of invasive research and out of the labs.”
An opponent to stopping chimp research said:
“Any reduction in the rate of development of drugs for these diseases will mean hundreds of thousands of people, really millions of people, dying because it would be years of delay
It would be grossly unethical not to do research.”
Pretty strong words.
Even if chimp resaserch is banned, that won’t stop all the other testing that goes on with all different species of animals.
Another rep from the humane society said:
“This is the kind of rigorous analysis we should be applying to all animal research.”
Hopefully one day, we will live in a world where no animal is harmed in the name of science.
[Image via WENN.]