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As New York Blood Center (NYBC) board member Michael Hodin walked toward his Manhattan home, activists protesting his decision to abandon 66 chimps with no food or water confronted him face-to-face for the first time. During previous protests outside of his luxury condo, Hodin has always watched from his windows.

Hodin, who is the CEO of the for-profit Global Coalition on Aging, stands by the Blood Center’s decision to abandon the chimps. “Hodin advocates for elderly humans, yet he signed off on a plan to leave elderly chimps to starve to death,” said Donny Moss of TheirTurn. “Elder abuse is elder abuse, regardless of the species. How sad that Mr. Hodin can’t connect the dots.”

Photo on the right by Jenny Desmond for HSUS

During the past year, the abandoned chimp protests at Hodin’s apartment have become more heated, as neighbors have grown weary of the presence of activists. In October, 2016, the New York Post ran a story about the protests (War Between Nonprofits Rages over Care of Research Chimps) in which a spokesperson for NYBC, Rob Purvis, made false claims about the activists:  “There have been attempts to enter trustees’ residences, and photos of trustees’ children and grandchildren have been posted online.”  

Christopher Hillyer, the CEO of this charity, had a compensation package that exceeded $1.5M as of 2014.

After conducting research experiments on almost 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 members of the public, Citigroup and The Richardson Center for Global Engagement, 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, some we understand even from the wild, and thus has a moral obligation to continue to care for them for the remainder of their lives.”

NYBC made a commitment to provide the survivors of its experiments with lifelong care, but the organization changed its mind, leaving the chimps to starve to death on islands with no natural food or water.

Please join the Facebook page, New York Blood Center: To 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.

After staging over 10 daytime protests at the home on New York Blood Center (NYBC) Board Member Michael Hodin and receiving no response, animal rights activists escalated their campaign by staging three nighttime protests, a change that is infuriating his neighbors. Hodin, along with his NYBC colleagues, abandoned 66 chimpanzees on islands in Liberia with no food or water after conducting experiments on them for three decades and making a public promise to provide the survivors with lifelong care.

As Hodin watched two of the protests from the windows of his multi-million dollar apartment, his neighbors, most of whom ignored the activists for months during the daytime protests, lambasted them for the nighttime disruptions. Activists told his angry neighbors to “take it up with Hodin.”

Activists plan to resume the night time protests at Hodin’s building after Labor Day, when area residents return from their summer vacations.

Use the tweet sheet to contact the NYBC and its corporate donors.

Sign the Care2 petition to MetLife, NYBC’s largest corporate donor.

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.

Follow TheirTurn on Twitter, and follow “Save NYBC Chimps”on Instagram and Twitter.

During two nighttime protests at the home of NY Blood Center (NYBC) board member Michael Hodin, many area residents descended from their buildings to express their outrage at being disturbed after dark.

“My baby is sleeping,” said one angry man who confronted the protesters. “Give me your address, and I’ll come to your house.”

Neighbors express their outrage at being disturbed at night by chimp advocates.

Activists began protesting at night only after more than a dozen daytime protests failed to persuade Hodin and his colleagues to reinstate funding for the 66 chimpanzees who they abandoned on islands in Liberia with no food or water.

“Most of these people ignored us for months when we politely asked them to contact Michael Hodin about the chimp crisis, so they shouldn’t be surprised that we came back at night – when we thought we could get their attention.” said Elena Natale, an activist who has protested at the same location several times during the day. “How odd that people explode over an hour’s worth of noise but show no anger at all about the abandonment of 66 chimps despite being made aware of the crisis week after week.”

The blood center did not acknowledge the grass roots campaign demanding that it reinstate funding for the chimps until the activists began protesting at night. “NYBC has made it clear that disruption is the only language they understand,” added Natale.

In a Q&A on its website, NYBC suggests that the chimp advocates are “bullies” who “encourage terrorism.”

In response to the anger, activists told area residents to complain to Michael Hodin and NYBC and noted that they will continue protesting at night until the organization fulfills its promise to provide lifelong care for the chimps.

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.

Chimps in Liberia left to die by the New York Blood Center

In May, 2015, the NY Times reported that NYBC had “withdrawn all funding,” leaving the chimps to die of starvation and thirst. In order to keep the chimps alive, Liberians who had been employed by NYBC 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 a coalition of over 30 animal conservation groups, led by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), raised funds from the public to pay for the chimps’ care on an emergency basis.

At a press conference on May 19th organized by HSUS, NY State Senator Tony Avella and NY State Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal condemned NYBC’s actions and demanded that the group resume funding for the chimps.

NY State Senator Tony Avella Demands that NY Blood Center reinstates funding for the 66 chimps who they abandoned.

Sign the Care2 petition and NYCLASS petitions to MetLife, NYBC’s largest corporate donor.

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.

Use the tweet sheet to contact MetLife, NYBC and their stakeholders.

Follow TheirTurn on Twitter, and follow “Save NYBC Chimps” on Instagram and Twitter.

Activists are not taking the New York Blood Center’s decision to abandon their surviving lab chimps lying down — unless they’re staging a “die-in” at the homes of the organization’s board members.

On February 4th, approximately 20 activists symbolically perished in front of the Upper West Side home of Michael Hodin, a wealthy businessman who, along with his colleagues at the NY Blood Center, left the group’s 66 surviving lab chimpanzees to die with no food or water on islands in Liberia after promising to provide them with lifelong care.

Activists stage die-in at the home of Michael Hodin, a New York Blood Center board member (Chimp photo: Jeff Topham)

During three increasingly disruptive protests staged at Michael Hodin’s home, residents from his building and the neighborhood displayed mixed emotions – from gratitude to grief to anger.

A pedestrian broke into tears when she learned that the NY Blood Center abandoned chimpanzees

One woman who exited and re-entered the building masked her identity by wearing a conical hat. Based on a fleeting view of her face, protesters suspected that she was Michael Hodin’s wife, Nancy.

From left to right: Howard Milstein, Nancy Hodin, woman masking her identity (Nancy Hodin?)

During the second protest at Michael Hodin’s home, held on January 28th, a few of his neighbors castigated the activists as they entered the building. “You guys are crazy,” said one resident. Protesters surmise that Hodin distributed a flyer in the building about the protests in an attempt to exonerate himself and discredit the activists.

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 executives and board members to fulfill their promise to provide lifelong care to their laboratory chimps.

Based on the dozen or more police officers and private security guards stationed at his Upper West Side home, New York Blood Center (NYBC) board member Michael Hodin must have been expecting an armed invasion. What he got instead was a group of 20 peaceful demonstrators who merely asked that he reinstate funding for the 66 chimpanzees abandoned by NYBC on islands in Liberia with no food or water.

Hodin, who has not responded to any of the letters or phone calls asking that he and his colleagues at NYBC take responsibility for their chimps, is a Managing Parter at the High Lantern Group and the CEO of the Global Coalition on Aging. During the protest, participants noted the irony of an advocate for the aging leaving elderly and dependent chimps to die.

At least a dozen police officers and private security guards were stationed inside and outside of Michael Hodin’s exclusive Upper West Side apartment building.

Mr. Hodin’s neighbors, several of whom acknowledged knowing him, and other area residents were appalled to learn that he played a role in leaving chimpanzees to die.

Michael Hodin’s neighbors react to the news that he abandoned chimpanzees with no food or water.

After conducting experiments on several hundred chimpanzees for 30 years at a laboratory in Liberia (West Africa), NYBC promised to provide the survivors with lifelong care. In May, 2015, the NY Times reported that NYBC executives decided to walk away from its $25,000 monthly obligation, arguing that the government of Liberia and animal advocacy groups should pay for the long-term care of the chimps. To date, NYBC has earned an estimated $500 million in royalties off of the research conducted on the chimps.

Activists use memes to educate the public about NY Blood Center board members’ moral crimes.

Grassroots activists working on the campaign to pressure NYBC into fulfilling its promise to care for their chimps say they intend to stage protests at the homes and offices of Michael Hodin and former NYBC board member Laurie Glimcher before expanding the campaign to other board members. A third protest at the Oakland office of  NYBC board member Owen Garrick is scheduled in March.

Several protest participants at the entrance to Michael Hodin’s exclusive Upper West Side home

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 executives and board members to fulfill their promise to provide lifelong care to their laboratory chimps.