True Blood’s Kristin Bauer is sinking her teeth into a real-life drama – she’s leading an effort to save 200 chimpanzees from being turned over to a Texas research laboratory for invasive experiments.
As Bauer writes in a letter going this week to the National Institutes of Health, she is outraged by the plan to put these aging chimpanzees back into laboratory cages.
“I’ve always been fascinated by chimpanzees. We now know that these amazing animals use tools, grieve for their dead, and are capable of complex communication with humans,” writes Bauer. “When chimpanzees are used in invasive experiments, they are often kept in small metal cages, deprived of normal social interaction, and subjected to harmful procedures…Please don’t send the Alamogordo chimpanzees back in the laboratory. These wonderful animals deserve so much better.”
Bauer joins New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and many others in New Mexico and across the country are speaking out on behalf of these animals. Her letter follows a similar letter from Gene Hackman earlier this week.