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The Curious Case of the Doubly Endangered Chimps

chimps-in-cages

Chimps held captive at a research lab associated with a US college have gained protection under the Endangered Species Act but now face a new threat in the college’s threat to ship them to a zoo in the UK. Read on to learn what you can do to help bring those chimps to a sanctuary . . . → Read More: The Curious Case of the Doubly Endangered Chimps

The Beginning of the End of Chimp Research?

This week, the National Institutes of Health Council of Councils approved a report that recommends that “Almost all of the 451 chimpanzees owned or supported by the National Institutes of Health that are now at research facilities should be permanently retired from research and moved to sanctuaries, with planning for the move to start immediately,” . . . → Read More: The Beginning of the End of Chimp Research?

Meet Princess

Portrait of Princess

Princess came to VINE Sanctuary from an agricultural college, where she was the subject of agricultural experiments. We don’t know exactly what was done to her, but we do know that she was bred repeatedly, suffering both forcible impregnation and the grief of having her calves taken from her. We first suspected, because of the . . . → Read More: Meet Princess

Solar-Powered Insects and Mad Scientists

Boxelder Bug (photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Ever since I moved back to the sanctuary, I’ve been fascinated by insects. Don’t get me wrong: I’ve always appreciated them. But something about moving to a place where the insects are unfamiliar to me (and visit regularly) has heightened my awareness of the many charms of Arthropoda.

From whence I write (that's Thunder . . . → Read More: Solar-Powered Insects and Mad Scientists

Chimps, Chickens, and Communication

crowing

A new study published in Current Biology proves (as if more evidence were needed) that, in the words of zoologist Matthew Cobb, “humans aren’t quite so unique, after all.” The so-called news is that chimps will warn other chimps about a hazard if and only if the other chimps don’t already know about the danger. . . . → Read More: Chimps, Chickens, and Communication

Newsflash: Study Shows People Less Empathic Than Rats

Reposted with permission from SuperWeed:

A new study published in Science demonstrated startling deficiencies in empathy and reasoning among even the most highly educated and otherwise proficient people. The researchers conducting this widely publicized study placed mammals in positions of frightening frustration and then dispassionately sat back and watched to see whether other mammals would . . . → Read More: Newsflash: Study Shows People Less Empathic Than Rats

Other Kinds of Bird Cages

Rats. Cats. Rabbits. Dogs.

Monkeys.

These are the animals we imagine locked up in vivisection labs, subjected to hurtful and often perverse experiments the purpose of which — beyond the satisfaction of abstract curiosity — is often unclear. Cats and rabbits burned by noxious poisons. Rats purposely starved to death. Dogs trapped in cages with . . . → Read More: Other Kinds of Bird Cages

Smoking Roosters and Other Atrocities

Many people don’t realize the extent to which chickens are subjected to biomedical research and other forms of vivisection. We’ll be contributing to the upcoming blog Carnival Against Vivisection and we hope that the bloggers among our supporters will too.

. . . → Read More: Smoking Roosters and Other Atrocities