Le vendredi 29 mai 2015
6時、快晴、20℃、55％。
チンパンジーはヒト科の類人猿だ。我々ヒトの病気解明や治療の実験台として長年貢献してきた。
リベリアのチンパンジー保護区で30年に亘って米国の血液研究機関New York Blood Center（NYBC）による実験に貢献してきたチンパンジーたちが放置されている。保護区はリベリア政府のものだが、政府には金がない。実験は10年前に終わった。しかし、これまで上記センターが世話をしてきた。センターは使命は終わったとしてファイナンスをこの3月に切ってしまった。
NYBCは1964年創設の血液銀行である。研究機関でもある。非営利団体。ホームページNを見ると、運営は寄付によって賄われているようだ。
チンパンジー66頭を放棄したNYBCに批判が集まっている。どうすればいいのか、問題はNYBCが考え直してくれればいいのだが、NYBCにその気はないようだ。
チンパンジーを自然の森に返せばいいのだろうが、人から世話されることに慣れたチンパンジーたちは自立して生活する知恵が衰えているのではないか。
ヒトに貢献してくれた動物たちの「老後」をひきとってくれる「動物園」はザンビアやマラウィにあって訪れたことがある。
RDCコンゴのカタンガ州にあるクンデルング国立公園（アフリカ一の落差400メータを越すロフォイ滝がある）の動物たちは密猟で動物たちがいなくなっている。森や草原は広く木の実など食料は抱負なようだ。ここに引っ越してきたらどうだろうか。チンパンジーを襲う動物もいない。しかし、これも引っ越しに金がかかるのが難題か。
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| 食料を与えられるチンパンジー 何時まで？ （リベリア） |
Chimpanzees
in Liberia, Used in New York Blood Center Research, Face Uncertain Future
By JAMES
GORMANMAY 28, 2015 New York Times linked by Slate Afrique
After about
30 years of using a colony of chimpanzees in Liberia for biomedical research,
which ended 10 years ago, the New York Blood Center has now withdrawn all
funding for them, prompting animal welfare groups to urge the center to
reconsider its decision.
For now,
the Humane Society of the United States is supporting the chimps, which are
owned by the government of Liberia, and is starting a campaign to raise funds
for them.
“The New York Blood Center is abandoning 66 chimpanzees and leaving their
fate to chance,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of the society. The cost of
caring for and feeding the chimps is about $30,000 a month.
Brian Hare,
an anthropologist and primatologist at Duke University who is also known for
his studies of dog intelligence, started a petition on Change.org to urge
people to contact the New York Blood Center.
Steven
Wise, left, of the Nonhuman Rights Project, and Christopher Coulston, an
assistant attorney general, on Wednesday. Arguing in Court Whether 2 Chimps Have
the Right to ‘Bodily Liberty MAY 27, 2015
Mr. Hare
said in an email, “I have studied great apes for 20 years in all contexts
across the globe — labs, zoos, sanctuaries, the wild” and others. “Never, ever
have I seen anything even remotely as disgusting as this.”
Victoria
O’Neill, a spokeswoman for the blood center, said officials there would not grant
interviews regarding the issue because “there is arbitration going on, brought
by the Liberian government.”
A brief
statement from the center said it had withdrawn support after “a long period of
unproductive discussions with the Liberian government about their
responsibilities in this regard, during which time we incurred millions of
dollars of costs.”
Ms. O’Neill
said the center “never had any obligation for care for the chimps, contractual
or otherwise.”
The news
site Front Page Africa first reported on the uncertain fate of the chimps last
week.
Fatorma K.
Bolay, director of the Liberian Institute for Biomedical Research in
Charlesville, which cares for the chimpanzees — who live uncaged on six
mangrove islands — said that the institute cannot afford to pay for their food
and care.
He said the
humane society has been paying for food and repairs since March 6, when funding
from the blood center stopped, but that caretakers are working for free.
“Why would they walk away from the animals?” Dr. Bolay said about the
blood center’s funding withdrawal. “We have to find a solution to take care of
these animals.”
The history
of the research center, called Vilab II, dates back to 1974, when the blood
center contracted with the institute to do research primarily on the hepatitis
virus, which survives in blood and posed a threat to the safety of the supply
of donated blood. Around this time, the United States banned importation of
chimpanzees caught in the wild.
By 2005,
the blood center had stopped research on the chimps and started trying to make
arrangements for their long-term care. A 2014 Vice documentary, Island of the
Apes, chronicled the history of the lab and the islands on which the chimps now
live.
A decade
ago, the blood center appeared to be committed to caring for the chimps in
retirement. Alfred M. Prince, director of the Vilab II project for the blood
center, wrote an article in the American Society of Primatologists Bulletin in
December 2005, seeking a foundation to take over care of the chimps. Dr. Prince
wrote that the blood center “recognizes its responsibility to provide an
endowment to fund the Sanctuary for the lifetime care of the chimpanzees.”
But Ms.
O’Neill said in an email that this was Dr. Prince’s opinion and was “not
authorized or approved” by the blood center. She added that the center “did not
ever establish any endowment for animal care, chimpanzees included.”
In 2007,
the blood center withdrew its staff from the institute in Liberia, but
continued to support the chimpanzees. In January, Dr. Bolay said the blood
center informed the institute that March 5 would be the last day of support.
Previous negotiations about the chimps’ future had broken down, Dr. Bolay said.
The humane
society hired Agnes Souchal, general manager of the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee
Rescue Center in Cameroon, to assess the state of the chimpanzees. She said in
an interview that there is little to no natural food on the islands and the
animals were completely dependent on their caretakers, who were feeding them
every other day.
The feeding
schedule had not changed, but there was more food in the past, she said.
She said
she found chimpanzees “without water.” There is no fresh water on the islands
and the water system had broken down. Since Ms. Souchal’s visit, it has been
fixed with funds from the United States and international humane societies.
Kathleen
Conlee, vice president for animal research at the Humane Society of the United
States, said the group is starting a crowdfunding effort on the site GoFundMe
to raise about $150,000. “Our long-term goal is to provide these chimpanzees
with true sanctuary,” she said. She said at least 16 other animal welfare
groups are also calling on the center to reinstate funding.
Ms. Conlee
said, “You cannot just use chimps like this and just abandon them and get away
with it.”
Correction:
May 28, 2015
An earlier
version of this article referred incorrectly to Kathleen Conlee. She is Ms.
Conlee, not Dr.
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