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The Watchdog monitors fundraising, spending, and political activity in the name of animal and habitat protection—both pro and con. His empty bowl stands for all the bowls left empty when some take more than they need.

JUNE 2007

Primarily Primates digs out after six & a half months of receivership

SAN ANTONIO--A month after returning to Primarily Primates, executive director Stephen Rene Tello told ANIMAL PEOPLE, "Ninety-five percent of the debris" left by six and a half months of court-appointed receivership had been cleaned up.

From October 15, 2006 until May 1, 2007, Primarily Primates was managed by receiver Lee Theisen-Watt, whose background was in wildlife rehabilitation, and a variety of PETA staff and volunteers.

The sanctuary was seized largely based on claims by two former Primarily Primates staff members who had been dismissed for cause. The allegations were forwarded to now retired Texas assistant attorney general John Vinson and Office of the Texas Attorney General investigator Christopher Krhovjak in May 2006 by PETA counsel for research and investigations Leona Stormont.

The Texas Office of Attorney General on April 27, 2007 agreed in an out-of-court settlement to "fully and completely release, acquit, and forever discharge Primarily Primates," founder Wally Swett, other staff and board members, and Friends of Animals, which absorbed the sanctuary in August 2006, from "all claims" brought against them in connection with the seizure.

The seizure came 12 years after Vinson pushed a similar attempted takeover, also based on claims by former employees, amplified by PETA and attorney Stephen Wise, who had previously represented Primarily Primates.

Wise was in December 2000 suspended from legal practice by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts for his conduct in connection with the case.

Tello, involved with Primarily Primates in various capacities for nearly 20 years, was originally named executive director of the sanctuary in August 2006, after Swett retired as part of the merger with Friends of Animals. Although Swett remains involved as a consultant, he is no longer on the Primarily Primates board of directors.

The reconstituted board includes Lou Griffin O'Neill, who for more than 20 years directed the former South Texas Primate Observatory, operated since 2001 as the Animal Protection Institute Primate Sanctuary. Griffin is now assisting Tello in the day-to-day management of Primarily Primates.

"We are focused on finding where everything is," updating the animal inventory, and locating or replacing missing or damaged equipment, Tello told ANIMAL PEOPLE.

As many as 300 animals were relocated from Primarily Primates to other facilities during Theisen-Watt's tenure. Among the recipient institutions were the Houston SPCA, Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation, the API Primate Sanctuary, Chimp Haven, the Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care, the Duke University Lemur Center, and Busch Gardens.

Tello said letters had been sent to 12 institutions seeking the return of various animals. Two recipients had agreed to return animals, Tello recounted. Four had initially balked, Tello said, but only one had refused in writing to return animals.

"They are our animals, first of all, and we have plenty of room," Primarily Primates attorney and board member Eric Turton told Cindy Tumiel of the San Antonio Express-News. "There's no question that there's space for them, and we would like them back. They are part of the Primarily Primates family."

Primarily Primates and Friends of Animals are expected to pursue with particular vigor the return to Primarily Primates of seven retired research chimpanzees from Ohio State University, the survivors of a colony of nine who were retired to Primarily Primates in February 2006, over the objections of PETA and OSU researcher Sally Boysen. The colony came with an endowment of $324,000 from OSU for the chimps' habitat and care.

One chimp died on arrival, while being unloaded. Another died two months later. Both deaths were determined by necropsy to have resulted from pre-existing heart conditions.

PETA sued to try to force Primarily Primates to send the chimps to Chimp Haven. The case was dismissed five weeks before Primarily Primates was placed in receivership.

"Our hope is that the chimps from OSU be returned to their rightful home and refuge, and that's Primarily Primates," Friends of Animals president Priscilla Feral told Mike Lafferty of the Columbus Dispatch.

As part of the out-of-court settlement, the Texas Office of Attorney General agreed to support efforts to bring the OSU chimps back to Primarily Primates. But Primarily Primates must complete the chimps' quarters by October 2007, and will be subject to inspection by the Office of the Attorney General for the next two years.

"The condition of the facility has been greatly improved. Overcrowding has been alleviated," said Texas Office of Attorney General spokesperson Tom Kelley.

Chimp Haven representative Rick Delahaya expressed disappointment. "This is pretty much their home," Delahaya said. "We knew it was on a temporary basis," legally speaking, "but we thought the judge and the attorney general would have the chimpanzees remain here."

Friends of Animals particularly opposes leaving any Primarily Primates animals at either Chimp Haven or the Duke University Lemur Center because both are associated with biomedical research. Chimp Haven houses chimpanzees who have been retired from research by the National Institutions of Health, under a contract which allows the NIH to recall them to lab use, if there is ever a reason. So far, the recall clause has never been invoked.

Duke University is extensively involved in animal research of various kinds, but the Duke University Lemur Center does not do invasive research, and has an independent board of directors. The management was restructured and the facilities were extensively improved after deficiencies attracted media notice in 1998 and 2001-2003.

Recovering animals, Tello told ANIMAL PEOPLE, was likely to be a long-term project. Restoring the Primarily Primates facilities is his short-term priority.

Three water pressure systems serving different parts of Primarily Primates had been dismantled during the receivership, Tello reported, apparently because someone did not understand how to fix a plumbing problem. New tranquilizer darting equipment, purchased just before the receivership started, could not be found.

Holding cages used to temporarily house incoming animals had been demolished, Tello said, while routine maintenance of permanent facilities was neglected.

"We have 63 corn crib cages," Tello said. "Last October I started replacing their climbing structures and ropes, which provide the behavioral enrichment for the smaller and medium-sized monkeys. The job was never completed. Most of the monkeys in the corn crib cages had nothing to climb or swing on," but the cage floors, Tello said, were layered up to a foot deep in feces-splattered mouldering wet hay.

Removing the hay from the cages and disposing of it safely, Tello said, had been one of his biggest management headaches, in part because the hay had incubated tens of thousands of biting flies.

Friends of Animals on May 14, 2007 distributed and posted a videotape showing some of the Primarily Primates chimpanzee enclosures and other facilities, made during the transition of management.

PETA president Ingrid Newkirk claimed on the PETA web site that during the six-and-a-half-month receivership, "relief was delivered to hundreds of chimpanzees and other animals who had been neglected," by PETA personnel who provided "veterinary care, proper feed, clean water, and the comfort of bedding and nesting boxes."

Tello and Swett told ANIMAL PEOPLE from the beginning of the receivership that Theisen-Watt and the PETA volunteers were making critical mistakes in their choices of toys and food for the chimps in particular. Tello and Swett predicted that the Theisen-Watt team would end up with messes that could not be cleaned up safely without moving animals.

The video, showing mainly the quarters for a colony of former NASA chimps, affirmed the predictions. As FoA captioned, and Tello narrated on the video, "The clip shows grassy enclosures littered with refuse, including soft toys and stuffing from soft toys, Fig Newton wrappers, potato chip wrappers, and brown paper bags. There is a Mountain Dew box. There are numerous wet and heavily soiled blankets. Food is lying in excrement and excrement on food."

"The first two weeks involved an intensive effort to clean the refuge grounds in and surrounding the enclosures, which were in severe disarray," Friends of Animals emphasized. "Clean-up has been the priority."
--Merritt Clifton

Israel bans cosmetic & cleaning product testing on
animals; EU advisory body approves alternatives

JERUSALEM--The Knesset on May 21, 2007 voted 29-0 with two abstentions to approve on third and final reading a law prohibiting animal testing of cosmetic and cleaning products.

Taking effect immediately on passage, the law "frees the 2,000-3,000 animals in Israel who are currently used to test cosmetic and cleaning products," said the Jerusalem Post. However, the law allows continued laboratory use of animals in developing medicinal products and health care procedures.

Bill author Gideon Sa'ar of the Likud Party told the Knesset that he intrduced it at request of his 16-year-old daughter, Daniella.

"On the basis of what Daniella saw and learned," Sa'ar said, "she convinced me that this bill needed to be passed. I am very proud of this new generation, who want a more humane society."

The Israeli law passed less than four weeks after the scientific advisory committee of the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods on April 28, 2007 approved five tests for cosmetic products that it said would make most animal testing unnecessary to meet European Union safety standards. Centre spokespersons estimated that the newly approved tests would eliminate the use of about 20,000 rabbits per year and about half of the 480,000 mice now used, chiefly in skin allergy screening.

"Under European Union rules, testing on animals must stop once other options have been validated by experts," summarized the London Evening Standard. "A full ban is subject to approval by all 27 member states, but this could happen by the end of the summer." The E.U. already has a directive in effect requiring an end to testing cosmetic ingredients on animals by 2009.