Bones Star Urges Waxman to Help Chimps

Emily Deschanel, star of Fox's Bones, wants to know if Rep. Henry Waxman has a soft spot for chimps

By Nikki Schwab

June 23, 2009 RSS Feed Print

Does Rep. Henry Waxman have a soft spot for apes? That's what actress Emily Deschanel, the star of Fox's Bones, is trying to find out. She penned a letter to the California congressman this week that urges Waxman to cosponsor the Town-Reichart Great Ape Protection Act. The legislation was recently introduced in a House health subcommittee that is part of the Waxman-chaired Committee on Energy and Commerce. The bill would phase out invasive scientific research on chimpanzees and release federally owned apes to sanctuaries. "This legislation would allow about 500 chimpanzees to live their remaining years in sanctuaries," writes Deschanel. "They could form bonds with other chimpanzees, bask in the sunlight, and feel the grass and the earth. That's the least we can do for chimpanzees, our species' closest living relatives."

Read her full letter here.

Tags:
Henry Waxman,
animal cruelty,
television,
animals

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practice surgery on animals was outlawed in england years ago. 95% of u.s. medical schools no longer offer animal lab. animal research has never been validated (pcrm.org). go to pcrm.org see, scientific fact sheet.. "work on prevention of polio was LONG DELAYED by an erroneous conception of the nature of the human disease based on MISLEADING experimental models of the disease in monkeys" albert sabin, m.d., during a 1984 house subcommittee. STILL no aids vaccine, ect.. mrmcmed.org "currently, nine out of ten experimental drugs fail in clinical studies because we cannot accurately predict how they will behave in people based on laboratory animal studies" said health and human services secretary mike leavitt. uk, nz, netherlands, sweded, austria, have all BANED experiments on chimpanzees. belgium bands experments on great apes (in 2008). uk bands licences for experiments on chimpanzees (1997). "animal studies are done for LEGAL REASONS and not for scientific reasons. the predictive value of such studies for man is MEANINGLESS" 1964 james gallagher, medical director of lederle laboritories (uk). if a car dealor jokingly said to you, we must 1st do research on a lawn-mower engine would that make sense to you?.... I CANT believe how GULLIBLE some people are.. every year charities (reform march of dimes.org) spend 100s of millions of dollars on animal research. STILL no cure, how many more millions (billions?!) before they stop being so GULLIBLE.... "there is a laundry list of problems with mouse models of cancer research" dr.bob weinburg, director of the ludwig center for cancer research at m.i.t. over 200 charities no longer fund animal research (humaneseal.org).

4mula1 of MI 3:22PM September 07, 2011

The only thing about this is that her letter really only states her side of the matter, it doesn't really cover the other half. How else are you supposed to go about doing medical research. Unless you just want to nix medical research altogether, there really is no other way to go about it. I mean yeah it's a tough situation to be in when you want to see everybody and everything living peacefully. But sadly this world isn't peaceful. I mean we have people killing other people in the name of their God, we have people starting wars, children starving to death, people being forced into wars. When you look at the bigger picture, Chimp research is not the number one issue.

I mean I'd like to know what her idea of an alternative would be? I mean I'm all for offering up a few sleazy politicians to have the research done on, but there's too many laws to have to go around.

Honestly, I don't see how there's another way and I've read most of these comments but they don't really offer up an alternative. I think it's great that Emily wants to do something wonderful for these chimps, I don't think it's really great to have to use animals or humans for research, but there's really no other way. You can't win everything, but hey, at least she's trying. I have to commend her on that at least.

Ella Jayne of TN 12:54PM July 17, 2009

"When I see a petition of the top 1000 medical research scientists in the fields of immunology, neuroscience, infection diseases and virology saying that we no longer need to use chimps, then I'll change my mind."

What makes you think scientists are qualified to decide a moral issue? I'd like 1000 ethics professors to weigh in.

stivee of MI 1:12AM July 12, 2009

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