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In a statement posted on its website, IBM announced that it has severed all ties with the NY Blood Center on account of the organization’s decision to abandon 66 chimpanzees with no food or water on islands in Liberia. IBM joins NYBC’s other long term corporate partners, MetLife and Citigroup, in demanding accountability from the organization.

IBM severs ties with NY Blood Center over chimp abandonment

The announcement, which states that IBM has suspended its blood drives, marks the end of a 54 year relationship between IBM and NYBC.

IBM has terminated its 54 year partnership with IBM on account of the abandoned chimps

IBM donated space to the New York Blood Center for blood drives.

IBM’s decision to sever ties with the NY Blood Center marks the end of a 54 relationship.

The news comes after a protest at IBM and months of discussions with animal welfare advocates who have been working to convince NYBC’s corporate parters to demand accountability from the organization.

The Care2 petition asking IBM to demand accountability from NYBC was signed by over 163,000 people.

The NY Blood Center abandoned 66 chimps on islands with no natural food or water and cut all funding for their care. Here, the chimps await the daily delivery of food and water. (Photo: Jenny Desmond for HSUS)

After NYBC abandoned the chimps, the animals went a week with no food or water.

After conducting research experiments on approximately 500 chimpanzees for 30 years and promising to provide the survivors with lifelong care, NYBC decided to abandon the 66 surviving chimps with no food or water on islands in Liberia, leaving them to die of starvation and thirst. Using money donated by the public, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has stepped in on an emergency basis to cover the monthly costs associated with feeding the chimps.

Among the many organizations that have spoken out against the New York Blood Center are Citigroup, MetLife and the Jane Goodall Institute

Dr. Jane Goodall, one of many leaders in the animal welfare community who have spoken out against NYBC’s decision to starve their chimps, wrote the following in a letter to the organization’s CEO, Christopher Hillyer, “I find it completely shocking and unacceptable that NYBC would abandon these chimpanzees and discontinue support for even their basic needs. Your company was responsible for acquiring these chimpanzees and thus has a moral obligation to continue to care for them for the remainder of their lives.”

The NY Blood Center made a promise to provide their chimpanzees with lifelong care.

In February, TheirTurn’s Donny Moss traveled to Liberia to visit and document the abandoned chimps; the Liberians who stepped in on a voluntary basis to save their lives; and Jenny and Jim Desmond, the American couple contracted by HSUS to oversee the care of the chimps.

Please thank IBM for taking a principled stand against the New York Blood Center by retweeting this tweet.

Please join the Facebook page, New York Blood Center: Do the Right Thing, to stay apprised of the campaign to hold NYBC accountable and to participate in online actions on behalf of the abandoned chimps.

Chimps abandoned by the New York Blood Center on islands in Liberia await their daily delivery of food and water.

In a stunning display of corporate philanthropy, Citigroup is making a $50,000 donation to help pay for the care of the chimpanzees abandoned on islands in Liberia by the New York Blood Center (NYBC). In addition, the company has issued the following statement, in which it asserts that “the current situation is not tolerable.”

In response to a Care2 petition signed by over 224,000 people asking the company to stop supporting NYBC, executives from Citigroup invited representatives from TheirTurn to brief them on the crisis and discuss possible ways in which they could help.

Citigroup engaged with advocates and took action as a result of this petition and other grass roots tactics.

For a thirty year period starting in the mid-1970s, NYBC conducted experiments on over 400 hundred chimpanzees in Liberia, where they could capture, breed and experiment on them with little regulatory oversight. After the research was conducted, NYBC moved the survivors onto six islands with no natural food or water and made a public commitment to provide them with lifelong care.

In May, 2015, the NY Times reported that NYBC had “withdrawn all funding for them,” leaving the chimps to die of starvation and thirst. In order to keep the chimps alive, Liberians who had been employed by the blood center to deliver food and water, began to care for them on a volunteer basis. With virtually no resources and burdened by the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, these volunteers kept the chimpanzees alive until an HSUS-led coalition of over 30 animal conservation groups raised funds from the public to pay for the chimps’ care on an emergency basis — until NYBC reinstates funding.

The New York Blood Center, which earned an estimated $500 million in royalties off of the research conducted on the chimpanzees, has publicly stated that it has no “contractual obligation” to pay for the chimps’ food and water and has shifted the burden of caring for their captive chimp population to the animal welfare community.

When the news broke in the Spring of 2015 about NYBC’s decision to abandon the chimps, thousands of grass roots activists worldwide began to mobilize – contacting NYBC, donating to the fund to pay for the chimps’ care; signing and circulating petitions; and participating in online actions organized by NYBC: Do The Right Thing.

In New York City, home of the NY Blood Center’s headquarters, grass roots activists began staging protests in May.  They are now turning their attention to the blood center’s corporate donors, the largest of which is MetLife.

From left to right: Activists in NYC stage an NYBC protest; Primatologist Bob Ingersoll delivers a petition to MetLife, NYBC’s largest corporate donor.

Citigroup’s bold decision to make a public statement about the chimps and generously provide much-needed funding for their care represents a big step forward for the chimps and the concerned citizens worldwide who have been advocating on their behalf.  But the campaign is not – and will not – be over until the New York Blood Center fulfills its obligation – and promise – to provide lifelong care for their former lab chimpanzees.

Please join the Facebook page: New York Blood Center: Do the Right Thing to stay apprised of news and to participate in online actions to pressure NYBC board members to fulfill their promise to provide lifelong care to their laboratory chimps.