The Wrongful Treatment of Chimpanzees

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Jerom, a chimpanzee, was taken from his mother at a young age. Unfortunately, Jerom was part of an experiment and was infected with HIV at the age of two. Jerom spent the duration of his life in the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, which is a federally funded laboratory in Atlanta, Georgia, until he died at the age of 14. He was housed in the Chimpanzee Infectious Disease (CID) building which is isolated from the other housing and research buildings on Yerkes main property. The CID building in which Jerom was kept in was described as a small, windowless box with cement walls and no outdoor access. Reality for these chimpanzees was a grey, dark space with damp floors and walls (Weiss). Because of these living conditions, several of the chimpanzees suffered from depression and were constantly in fear. The wrongful treatment of chimpanzees has been occurring for many years and is beginning to be a major problem. The United States government needs to eliminate medical testing on chimpanzees. It is no longer needed and it ultimately decreases a chimp’s quality of life and often results in death.
Background
Behavioral studies on chimpanzees began in the United States in the 1920s. Robert M. Yerkes was the first psychologist to study the behavior of chimpanzees. When he first started studying these animals, he only concentrated on the behavioral aspects of chimpanzees. He was not interested at this time in using them for medical experiments. Later on in the 1940s was when scientists started to use chimpanzees for medical experiments. Medical studies and experimentations lasted until 1973, when President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law. “The Endangered Species Act made it illegal to import ...

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...t kills more than 66,000 children each year” (Wadman).
Conclusion
The United States government should prohibit biomedical testing on chimpanzees and relocate the animals to sanctuaries such as Chimp Haven, where they will live a relatively normal life and will no longer be experimented on. Chimpanzees have greatly contributed to our understanding of diseases and have helped medical doctors find cures in the past. However, with the advancement of technology the need to experiment on chimpanzees is no longer needed. Chimpanzees have been forced into dangerous, uncomfortable and invasive procedures for many years and have had to deal with the fear and loneliness that the research laboratories provided. These chimpanzees were not meant to be treated and experimented on. The United States has to declare testing on chimps as unconstitutional before it’s too late.

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