Iberia Research Center: Set Your Chimpanzees Free!

Chimps are intelligent, sensitive animals who feel the same hurt, pain and fear that humans do. In fact, new research shows that just like children, they should be regarded as "vulnerable subjects" when it comes to scientific research; in other words, you shouldn't do anything to a chimp that you wouldn't do to a human child.

That's one big reason why the National Institute of Health decided to end the majority of its use of chimpanzees in scientific studies. Any possible benefit to trapping these creatures in a cage and subjecting them to frightening experiments, officials said, wasn't worth it.

Unfortunately, some private companies throughout the country still use chimps in their research. The New Iberia Research Center in Louisiana houses more privately owned chimpanzees than all other U.S. labs combined.

In 2009, New Iberia was charged with violating the Animal Welfare Act after undercover footage showed adult chimps in tiny, bare cages and baby chimps screaming as they were wrenched from their mothers' arms, feeding tubes shoved down their throats. Just a year later, they were slammed with an $18,000 penalty for even more violations.

Chimpanzee testing is an outdated, cruel activity that belongs nowhere in the country. Ask PCRM to release its chimps to a sanctuary!