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Dr. Laurie Glimcher Resigns from NY Blood Center’s Board Amid Chimpanzee Scandal

October 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment


The News

Following three protests at her office and home and a series of online calls to action, Dr. Laurie Glimcher has resigned from the Board of Trustees of the New York Blood Center (NYBC).

Glimcher chimp scandal on the cover of the Cornell Daily Sun

Laurie Glimcher chimp scandal on the cover of the Cornell Daily Sun

In an attempt to disconnect Glimcher’s resignation from the chimpanzee scandal, NYBC and Cornell Medical College have issued statements claiming that she is no longer serving on the board because her term ended. Not only are the statements untrue, but they also conflict with each other.

In a cover story entitled “Weill Cornell Medicine Dean Accused of Chimp Abandonment,” the Cornell Daily Sun reported that Dr. Glimcher “vacated her position at the NYBC because her two-year commitment had expired.”  The NY Blood Center, on the other hand, published a statement which quotes Dr. Glimcher saying, “For the past three years, I have gladly served on the board of NYBC.”

Cornell and NYBC issued conflicting statements about Dr. Glimcher's length of service on the board, and neither is true.

Cornell and NYBC issued conflicting statements about Dr. Glimcher’s length of service on the board, and neither is true.

NYBC’s by-laws state that board members serve a three year term. Dr. Glimcher served just 2 years and 4 months, but NYBC appears to have rounded up to three years in order to state in its press release that she “fulfilled her commitment.” (see graphic below). If NYBC had reported on the true length of her service, then it would have had to disclose that she resigned eight months before her term ended.

NYBC states that Glimcher completed her three year term, but she only served for 2 years and 4 months.

NYBC states that Glimcher completed her three year term, but she only served for 2 years and 4 months.

Perhaps Cornell Medical College reported that she served on NYBC’s board for two years because that is closer to the truth, and Dr. Glimcher did not anticipate that advocates would compare the Cornell and NYBC statements or research NYBC’s by-laws to determine the term length for board members.

Dr. Glimcher's name was removed from the Board of Trustees on the NYBC website between 10/27 and 10/30

Dr. Glimcher’s name was removed from the Board of Trustees list on NYBC’s website in late October, eight months before her 3-year term was supposed to end.

In the Cornell Daily Sun article, Dr. Glimcher is quoted as saying that she “can’t provide any insight about these decisions” surrounding the chimps because she joined the board in 2013. That is also inaccurate, as  NYBC made the decision to abandon the chimps in early 2015, long before the Dr. Glimcher resigned from the board.

In a letter to the NY Blood Center, Jane Goodall said the organization has a moral obligation to pay for the chimps' care.

In a letter to the NY Blood Center, Jane Goodall said the organization has a moral obligation to pay for the chimps’ care.

“If Dr. Glimcher had told the truth — that she resigned from the board because of the protests — and issued a public statement demanding that NYBC reinstate the funding for the chimps, then we would back off,” said Donny Moss, who is working on the grass roots campaign in NYC to hold NYBC accountable. “But she is not taking any responsibility for the chimps abandoned on her watch, and her decision to walk away from the scandal does nothing to help them.”

In its press release announcing Dr. Glimcher’s departure and other updates related to the Board, NYBC states that “18 of its 20 current trustees” would be returning. Why not Dr. Glimcher?

On Thursday, November 5th, over 100 activists are staging a protest at NYBC’s 50th anniversary fundraising gala to inform the organization’s donors that NYBC board members and executives left 66 chimpanzees to die on islands in Liberia with no food or water after kidnapping them from the jungle, breeding them in captivity, conducting invasive research experiments on them, earning $500 million in royalties off of the research and promising to provide them with lifelong care.

New York Blood Center executives promised to provide its chimpanzees with lifelong care.

New York Blood Center executives promised to provide its chimpanzees with lifelong care.

Your Turn

Please join the Facebook page: New York Blood Center: Do the Right Thing to participate in the online actions. If you live in New York City, please join the protests targeting New York Blood Center board members at their homes and offices.

With no natural food on the islands where they were relocated, the chimps eagerly await the delivery of food

With no natural food on the islands where they were relocated, the chimps eagerly await the delivery of food


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Prestigious Film Festival Announces First-Ever Category Dedicated To Animal Rights

August 17, 2015 by Leave a Comment


The News

For the first time ever, a major international film festival has launched a category dedicated to animal rights. In October, 2015, the Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) will feature “Compassion, Justice & Animal Rights,” a program that, according to organizers, provides a platform for filmmakers “to share meaningful information, stories of inspiration and tools for creating a safe and humane world for animals.”

Hamptons International Film Festival (October 8 - 12, 2015)

Hamptons International Film Festival (October 8 – 12, 2015)

“The high quality films chosen by organizers will not only encourage discussion about how we view and treat animals, but will also help viewers make more compassionate choices in their day-to-day lives,” said Zelda Penzel, a longtime festival supporter who worked with organizers to create the category. “I strongly believe that these films have the potential to change hearts and minds.”

The Hamptons International Film Festival dedicates an entire category to animal rights films

The Hamptons International Film Festival dedicates an entire category to animal rights films

The description of the program on the festival’s website is, in and of itself, a tool to educate mainstream audiences about the plight of animals: “In the 21st century, billions of animals continue to be exploited for our food, clothing, labor, research and entertainment. They are denied their basic right to life and fundamental protections against violence and cruelty.”

While 2015 is the first year that the festival has dedicated an entire category to animal rights, organizers have included animal rights films in recent years, including Virunga and Emptying the Skies, documentaries about the plight of mountain gorillas and songbirds. It was the large turn out and the engaging Q&A sessions at these screenings that convinced festival organizers to shine a brighter spotlight on animal rights.

The 2015 festival will feature three narrative or documentary films about animal rights, including The Champions, which follows the story of the pit bulls rescued from NFL quarterback Michael Vick’s dog fighting ring. The Champions has its world premiere at the festival.

Virunga won the Zelda Penzel Giving Voice to the Voiceless Award at the 2014 HIFF

Virunga won the Zelda Penzel Giving Voice to the Voiceless Award at the 2014 HIFF

For her part, Ms. Penzel, who endows the festival with an award for an animal rights film each year, is not surprised that the films about the plight of animals have been so well received. After all, she says, “Animal rights is the social justice movement of our time.”

Alec Baldwin, the newly appointed Chairman of the Board of HIFF and a longtime spokesman for animal rights issues, has indicated that he plans to lend his support to the category.


Filed under: Food, Victories
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In Daring Public Action, Animal Rights Activists Liberate Innocent Death Row Prisoners

May 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment


The News

On May 8th, animal rights activists in Dublin, Ireland, liberated nine lobsters from a Chinese restaurant and released them into their natural habitat, giving them the chance to live and generating widespread media attention about the cruelty of boiling live animals.

Animal rights activists scoop lobsters out of small tank in Dublin restaurant

Animal rights activists scoop lobsters out of small tank in Dublin restaurant

Activists remove rubber bands from lobster claws before releasing them into the sea. (photo: NARA)

Activists remove rubber bands from lobster claws before releasing them into the sea. (photo: NARA)

In an interview with BBC, the founder of the National Animal Rights Association (NARA), Laura Broxson, said that the activists were motivated by compassion in what was a “life or death” situation for the lobsters: “They were free and had the chance to live, rather than facing certain death by being boiled alive.”

By intentionally revealing their faces while filming the liberation (“Open Rescue”), the participants could face legal consequences, a risk that some activists take in order to show the public that they are regular, relatable people, not the mask-wearing “terrorists” portrayed in the media. The real terrorists, they argue, are those who exploit and kill animals, not those who rescue them from egregious abuse and imminent death.

In January, activists with London Vegan Actions used a different approach to advocate for lobsters – staging a loud disruption on their behalf inside of a restaurant that serves them at multiple locations. Using a megaphone, they chanted, “If you want to get some peace, make the lobster torture cease.” After being aggressively ejected from the restaurant by staff, the activists continued to chant through the bullhorn at the restaurant’s entrance.

In the United States alone, more than 20 million lobsters are consumed each year. The unthinkable end of lobsters’ lives – being boiled or torn apart while still alive – often overshadows the horrific journey they take from the ocean to the kitchen. After being caught in traps and dragged out of their homes onto boats, lobsters are transferred into restaurant or grocery store tanks where they suffer from hunger, low oxygen level, stress, confinement and overcrowding. Scientists have proven that lobsters suffer.

lobster cartoon

Rina Deych, a New York City-based activist who has spoken out against home delivery of live lobsters said, “We are quick to demonize people in other cultures for boiling puppies and kittens alive, yet in our society, people think nothing of dropping a sentient creature of another species into a pot of boiling water.”

In 2008, an Australian apparel company called Just Jeans produced a provocative commercial in which customers in Chinese restaurant make a spur of the moment decision to empty the lobster tank and release the animals into the ocean.

The Dublin liberation was conducted by the National Animal Rights Association, Direct Action for Animals and The Alliance for Animal Rights.


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Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico Bans Horse-Drawn Carriages

April 20, 2015 by Leave a Comment


The News

The Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico has signed an executive order banning horse-drawn carriages, effective April 20th. The ban comes four days after a horse collapsed on the street. In a statement, Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz Soto said she made the decision based on “exploitation” and the “mistreatment to which they are exposed every day.”

San Juan, Puerto Rico

A spooked horse who bolted and crashed into a jeep in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2012

The Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, has also pledged to ban horse-drawn carriages. In December, 2014, he introduced a bill that would phase out the carriages over a three year period. In mid-April, he reaffirmed his commitment, telling a reporter that he believes horse-drawn carriages in the streets of Manhattan are “inhumane” and “archaic.” Earlier in 2015, he elaborated on his position on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

The NYC Council is expected to vote on the Mayor’s bill this summer, after the city completes a mandatory and routine Environmental Assessment study.

Spooked horse collides with motor vehicle in midtown Manhattan

Spooked horse collides with motor vehicle in midtown Manhattan (photo: Catherine Nance)

Your Turn

To see how you can support the ongoing effort to ban horse-drawn carriages in NYC, please visit NYCLASS and The Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages.


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Philanthropist Rescues 1,300 Monkeys from Imminent Torture

January 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment


The News

Ady Gil, a Los Angeles-based philanthropist and animal rights activist, has spent $2 million to purchase 1,300 monkeys on the verge of being sold to laboratories around the world. The long-tailed macaques were the last of monkeys at Mazor Farms, a primate breeding facility that supplies monkeys for experiments. Several hundred of Mazor’s monkeys were snatched from the jungle in Mauritius, an island off the coast of Africa, and shipped in crates to Israel. The remainder were bred in captivity.

Journalist Jane Velez-Mitchell spoke to Mr. Gil about his historic purchase:

According to activists with Behind Closed Doors, who have been fighting for 20 years to shut down Mazor Farms, infant monkeys born at the facility are kidnapped from their mothers and held in separate enclosures so that they can be bred as quickly as possible. The separation is traumatic for the infants and their mothers, who cry out for them. Those who survive are tattooed, sold for $3,000 each, stuffed into crates and shipped to labs for toxicology studies or invasive brain studies, which, according to the Israeli activists, is “a fate worse than death.”

Photo: Alon Ron, Haaretz

Photo: Alon Ron, Haaretz

Mazor Farms has been the target of Israeli animal rights activists for 20 years. In recent years, they have had some success with curbing Mazor’s operations. In 2010, the Israeli airline El-Al agreed to stop transporting animals for experimentation after video emerged of monkeys suffering in crates. In 2011, the Israeli government banned the importation of wild caught monkeys. In 2012, activists took to the streets of Tel Aviv in a dramatic protest to shine a spotlight on the atrocities committed at Mazor Farms and the labs where their monkeys are shipped:

Thanks to the generosity and vision of Ady Gil, Mazor Farms is closed for good. The monkeys will be sent to sanctuaries in Israel that are being expanded to meet the demand.

Your Turn

Ady Gil spent a stunning $2 million to free the monkeys, but his foundation will need help paying to expand an existing sanctuary and for lifelong care of these monkeys. Please visit Ady Gil World Conservation to see how you can help give these monkeys a second chance.


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