The
primates had previously had a ‘split status’ with those in US classified as
‘threatened’ but new rules will restrict scientific research on captive animals
A124CE Chimpanzee laugh1 Photograph: Alamy |
The US has
named chimpanzees a fully endangered species, extending greater protections to
the apes in a decision that primate researcher Jane Goodall has hailed as a
sign of “an awakening”.
The US Fish
and Wildlife Service director, Dan Ashe, announced on Friday that chimpanzees
will no longer hold their unique “split status” under US law, which since the
1990s has protected wild chimps but allowed largely unfettered research on
captive animals.
Prompted by
the worries of Aids researchers and thinking the special status would forestall
the exploitation of wild chimps, the US previously classified chimps in America
as “threatened”.
Ashe said:
“That was a well-intentioned decision, but we now realize it was a mistake.”
Rather than
solve the problem, the dual status “expanded a culture and attitude of treating
these animals as commodities,” he said.
The
decision to provide the full protections of the Endangered Species Act to
chimpanzees follows years of research by the Fish and Wildlife Service and
National Institutes of Health, as well as years of activism by the Humane
Society and other animal welfare organizations.
The new
rules grant new protections to the primates, restrict their commercial trade,
and will probably most affect biomedical research institutions, which will now
have to apply for permits in order to perform research on chimpanzees.
Absent
permits, the new rule will also ban interstate commerce, and prohibit “taking”,
a term that could encompass anything that could cause a chimpanzee harm or
distress, from serious injury to taking blood to harassment.
The federal
agency says that “permits will be issued for these activities only for
scientific purposes that benefit the species in the wild, or to enhance the
propagation or survival of chimpanzees.”
Researchers
would need to show “substantial” contribution to chimpanzees’ survival in the
wild, Ashe said, either through their scientific research or material contributions
to support the animals in the wild, such as giving to habitat restoration
programs.
Dr Jane Goodall: ‘I think of chimpanzees as chimpanzeebeings because they’re so like us.’ Photograph: Javier Soriano/AFP/ Getty Images |
Goodall
praised the decision, saying: “There are times in the past when I wondered
whether this day would ever happen.
“It shows
an awakening, it shows a new consciousness. We should all raise our glasses
tonight.”
Not all
scientists celebrated, however, with some arguing that the rules threatened
vital research that could save lives.
“This new
ruling effectively means that biomedical research with the chimpanzee model may
become difficult, if not impossible, to conduct,” the National Association for
Biomedical Research (NABR) said in a statement, adding that the species’
contribution to medicine “benefits nearly every child born in America today”.
NABR said
that chimpanzees made it possible to produce vaccines for hepatitis, and that
the species could help with research in any number of diseases that humans
suffer from.
“It would
be unfortunate, even grave, should an infectious disease outbreak occur where
human lives are at stake and a chimpanzee model could expedite development of
life-saving medicines.”
But Wayne
Pacelle, the president of the Humane Society of the United States, said the
decision was “an incredible one-two punch for conservation and chimpanzee
protection”.
While the
old law “reflected some moral confusion” about chimpanzees, he said, more
Americans now understood that “chimpanzees possess so many qualities that we value,
the capacity to suffer, to show intelligence, awareness”.
He said the
decision heralded “a new era where we treat them with respect and show concern
for every individual”.
Pacelle’s
view was echoed by Goodall.
“I remember
so well,” she said, “how the scientific establishment told me that chimpanzees
couldn’t have personalities, couldn’t have minds, couldn’t be capable of any
kind of rational thought and certainly couldn’t have emotions, because those
are unique to the human animal.”
Even within
the past two decades “we’ve seen a lot of change,” she said. “I think of
chimpanzees as chimpanzee beings because they’re so like us.”
Although
many biologists and researchers remain wary of anthropomorphizing animals, and
divided about how to talk about and study animal consciousness, research into
intelligent and social animals has expanded massively in the past 30 years.
The field
of animal cognition has boomed alongside neuroscience, geneticists have shown
that humans share most of their genes with chimpanzees, and research has shown
evidence that chimps exhibit complex memory, emotions, self-awareness, and even
an awareness of death. Greater research also shows quirkier similarities with
mankind: 17 years of study concluded this month that some wild chimps indulgein regular, habitual drinking.
The
cultural shift has extended into the public domain: though a chimpanzee once
starred alongside Ronald Reagan, in May a poll found that nearly a third of
Americans felt that animals deserved the same protections as humans, and this
year an animal rights campaign won itself a hearing over partial, legal
“personhood” for chimpanzees in New York.
That case
could remove two chimpanzees from a research program at Stony Brook University
in New York.
Ashe said
people should not “read anything else” into the new rule except “we have
learned a lot about the nature of chimpanzees”.
“Some of
the things that we thought did not constitute harm or harassment of chimpanzees
do in fact constitute harm and harassment,” he said, and the rule is “in large
part in recognition of that”.
Goodall
said she hoped the new classification would help counter the forces that
threaten chimpanzees: habitat destruction by deforestation and encroaching
humans, diseases, the bushmeat trade, and the “surging demand from Asia” for
captive animals.
In
particular, Goodall hoped the new rules would help end the practice of keeping
chimps as pets or for entertainment, noting that the animals grow too powerful
for their owners and suffer “psychological trauma”.
“They’re
stuck between two worlds,” she said. “They’ve never learned to be a chimpanzee
and they can never become a human.”
There are
1,742 chimps in the US, according to a project for the Center for the Study and
Conservation of Apes at the Lincoln Park Zoo: 730 in biomedical labs, 559 in
sanctuaries, 265 in accredited zoos, and the remainder with unaccredited
facilities and private owners.
In 2011,
the National Institute of Health found that while chimpanzees had research
value in the past, medical advances “have provided alternatives to the use of
chimpanzees”. Two years later, the institute said it would retire about 300 research
chimpanzees; to date, only a handful of those animals have gone to sanctuaries,
a process that Pacelle said he wants to see expedited.
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