Help release Wenka and all elder* chimpanzees languishing in U.S. labs.
April 2006/Updated March 2009

Sign the petition for their release from labs and placement into sanctuary.

Wenka is a frail 54-year-old chimpanzee, held at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta, who deserves sanctuary. Her time for the comfort and safety of sanctuary is running out.

While Project R&R is committed to getting all chimpanzees out of all U.S. labs, your immediate help is needed to secure Wenka’s release, along with that of all of the other elders in captivity - most if not all of whom have been in a lab for 40 years or more. Many have spent their entire lives in a lab enduring multiple procedures or being repeatedly “bred” to make more babies for research. Some were captured as infants in Africa.

The Chimpanzee Elders** Who Need Our Help*

• Wenka, age 55 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Gwen, age 54 – New Iberia Research Center (deceased 2006)
• Susie, age 52 – Primate Foundation of Arizona, AZ (deceased)
• Cheeta, age 52 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Lulu, age 52 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Maxine, age 52– Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Flo, age 52 – Alamogordo Primate Facility, NM (government owned)
• Karen, age 51 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Billy Ray, age 50 – New Iberia Research Center, LA (deceased 2007)
• Guy, age 50 – Alamogordo Primate Facility, NM (government owned)
• Harriet, age 49 – Primate Foundation of Arizona, AZ (deceased)
• Diana, age 49 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Jan, age 49 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Julius, age 49 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Lady Bird, age 49 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Pumpkin, age 49 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Sandy, age 49 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Walter B., age 49 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Clay, age 49 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Martha, age 49 - Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Mary, age 49 - Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Jake, age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA (deceased)
• Jenda, age 48 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA (deceased)
• Reba, age 48 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA (deceased)
• Winny, age 48 - Alamogordo Primate Facility, NM (government owned)
• Kirby, age 48 - Alamogordo Primate Facility, NM (government owned)
• Maxwell, age 48 - Alamogordo Primate Facility, NM (government owned)
• Boka, age 47 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA (deceased)
• Pierre, age 47 - M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, TX
• Gigi, age 47 - M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, TX
• Happy, age 47 - Primate Foundation of Arizona, AZ
• Josam, age 47 - Alamogordo Primate Facility, NM (government owned)
• Iyk, age 47 - Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Beleka, age 47 - Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Janice, age 47 - New Iberia Research Center, LA

For a list of all known elder chimpanzees in U.S. laboratories, click here.

*On average the life expectancy for chimpanzees in captivity is only 30 yrs/males and 45/yrs females. Their time is running out. Chimpanzees are considered elderly beginning at 25 yrs/males and 30 yrs/females.

**Project R&R’s Elder Campaign is currently focusing on chimpanzees 47 years of age or older.

Sources: Cohen, J. Jan. 26, 2007. The Endangered Lab Chimp. Science. Vol. 315; and
Videan, E. N. et. al. 2008. Effects of Aging on Hematology and Serum Clinical Chemistry in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). American Journal of Primatology, Apr;70(4):327-38.

Some labs have not responded to our requests for 2008 census information. Therefore, it is unknown if all the individuals listed above are still alive, have been transferred to other facilities, or if other elders exist.

You can change their fate and help make their remaining years a life of dignity and protection in sanctuary by clicking here to sign onto the Project R&R petition demanding their immediate release from the laboratories that currently hold them.

She was old and grateful for the small kindnesses,
like good fruit and sunshine.
–A former Yerkes lab worker’s recollection of Wenka

A former lab worker remembers Wenka vividly: “Her fingers were long and delicate, her palms fragile, and they seemed to perfectly represent her sweet and passive nature.” According to Project R&R’s sources at the Yerkes lab, Wenka is still alive – presently living in a group setting with seven or eight other chimpanzees who are all younger than her. Our most current information indicates that she is one of the oldest chimpanzees in research in the world.

HOW TO HELP
Sign the Project R&R letter that will be sent to NIH officials, lab directors, and affiliated university presidents – individuals who can show compassion to these elderly chimpanzees whose lives have been spent and exhausted by research.

According to an independent public survey
commissioned by Project R&R, 71% of Americans
support the release of chimpanzees who have spent
longer than 10 years in a laboratory.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Make a donation: help Project R&R’s rescue
efforts. These chimpanzees have little time left!"

Information here and a wonderful informative site:

http://www.releasechimps.org/2009/03/09/help-wenka-and-all-elder-chimpanzees/