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A R T I C L E S New Mexico Business Weekly September 18, 2002 Click Here Coulston lab shuttered; monkeys get new caretakers The controversial Coulston Foundation, based in Alamogordo, N.M., has shut down, and its chimpanzees and monkeys will be relocated to a sanctuary in Florida where they will be permanently removed from research, said Save the Chimps in a press release today. The Florida-based Save the Chimps, a non-profit organization that cares for 25 chimpanzees will now care for Coulston's chimpanzees and monkeys, which total 266. Save the Chimps purchased the foundation's buildings and equipment on Sept. 16 using a $3.7 million grant made possible by the Arcus Foundation of Kalamazoo, Mich., a long-time supporter of the Florida sanctuary. Prior to the purchase of the lab, the lab was unable to make payroll and its employees were threatening to walk, according to Save the Chimps. Many employees who worked at the lab will also be retained by Save the Chimps, although it could not say how many, says Carole Noon, director of Save the Chimps. Some of the animals will remain, at least temporarily, in Alamogordo, and some will relocate to Florida. Save the Chimps said it was approached this spring by Foundation CEO Fred Coulston, whose lab was facing bankruptcy and foreclosure after years of mounting regulatory problems and opposition from animal advocates. Prior to contacting Save the Chimps, Coulston had tried and failed to find a buyer for his lab. The National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the USDA had all removed their financial support from the lab. The lab's major creditor, First National Bank of Alamogordo, filed foreclosure papers last December for over $1.1 million in outstanding loans. Over the past year, state and federal tax liens filed against the lab totaled $427,000. The lab was investigated at least seven times and formerly charged four times by the US Department of Agriculture for violating the Animal Welfare Act. The charges included the negligent deaths of ten chimpanzees and four monkeys, according to Save the Chimps. The Coulston Foundation's research started in the 1950s when it conducted experiments on chimpanzees for the first American manned space flights at Holloman Air Force Base. The current foundation was formed in 1993 in a merger with New Mexico State University's Primate Regional Laboratory. Save the Chimps was established in 1997, under the leadership of Jane Goodall and Roger Fouts. © 2002 American City Business Journals Inc. | |||||||||||||||
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