Even as the media was reporting the chimps' terrible fate, one man was quietly racing the clock to sneak the LEMSIP chimps into hiding before Coulston could get to them. Secrecy was vital. But now, five years later, his extraordinary story can be told...
It's a remarkable story, it really is. Not only that one man's (relative) compassion for his charges, but the fact that, when his employer, a major institution, became aware that he was effectively committing several felonies (grand theft and, technically, trafficking in stolen goods AND doing so across state lines, which raises both of the above to the level of federal felonies), they basically just shrugged and let him do it.
As for the Coulston Foundation itself, the company that they were going to have to give the chimps to ... OK. Whatever the ethics of animal-based research, it's never going to be painless to the animal. It's never going to be neat and clean or any of the things we might otherwise desire. That said ... do you know how badly you have to be treating research animals to get forced into a consent decree with the USDA? I mean, the USDA oversees slaughterhouses, for heavens sake. Compassionate care is not their main concern. And even having managed to achieve this badge of dubious distinction, the government allowed--AIDED--Coulston in worming out of its terms. Technically, they don't own the chimps any more, no. But since they're still with Coulston, and the USDA and NIH presumably don't really care that much about this (else why would the animals still be there?) and now we have George II Fraudulency and his "anything for my corporate sponsors" presidency ... it's not likely that anything is going to change down there, is it? (Note: I'm not saying that Coulston contributed to George's campaign ... although I would be mildly surprised if he hadn't. I am saying that the corporatist slant of this administration has already produced extremely lax enforcement of health and environmental laws that directly affect humans, so what chance do research animals have?)
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
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12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!