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.

If NY Blood Center Board Member Owen Garrick made one thing clear during the two day protest at his office, it’s that he desperately wants to avoid the spotlight. Garrick runs a for profit business out of the office of a charity he created. His business is not listed on the company directory in the lobby, and after the first two protests, he removed his business address from his company’s website.

Before and after — Owen Garrick removed the address of his business from his company’s website after the protests. Is that because he is running it out of the office of a charity he created?

He also removed himself from the list of employees of his own charity – the same charity where he operates his business. Before the protests, he was listed as the Treasurer and Founder. His wife continues to be listed on the charity’s website.

After the protests, Owen Garrick removed his name as an employee of the charity he created. He runs his business out of the office of this charity, but his business is not listed on the company directory in the lobby of his building.

Perhaps a desire to remain anonymous is what triggered Garrick to nervously pace the lobby of his building as activists, who staged an unannounced protest, informed his neighbors that he signed off on a plan to leave 66 chimps to die on islands with no food or water.

Owen Garrick paced back and forth as activists protested in the lobby during their first protest, which was unannounced in advance.

One day after staging the unannounced protest, a larger group of approximately 20 protesters paid a second visit to Garrick’s place of business. This time, security was prepared and locked the door to the building — a major inconvenience to the hundreds of people who were coming and going during the rainy lunch hour rush.

https://youtu.be/gOH-8LxTn_8

While some people were angry about getting wet, others were grateful that people were willing to stand in the rain to be a voice for the chimps abandoned by Owen Garrick and his colleagues on the New York Blood Center’s Board of Trustees. Activists plan a third protest in the coming weeks.

During lunch hour, hundreds of people who work in Owen Garrick’s building learned that he abandoned chimpanzees with no food or water.

After conducting experiments on several hundred chimpanzees for 30 years at a laboratory in Liberia, the NY Blood Center promised to provide the survivors with lifelong care. In May, 2015, the NY Times reported that the blood center 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.

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.

In a weekend of protests dubbed #StormSkansa, animal rights activists from across the country travelled to New York to stage massive protests at home and office of Richard Cavallaro, the President and CEO of Skanska USA, a multi-billion dollar global construction company. Skanska was hired by the University of Washington to build a $90 million underground animal research facility in Seattle. According to organizers, Cavallaro was targeted because, as the head of Skanska USA, he has the power to shut down the project.

No New Animal Lab activists occupy a crane to halt construction of underground lab at the University of Washington

https://vimeo.com/152941414

The convergence was co-organized by activists with the NYC Animal Defense League and the No New Animal Lab campaign, which was started in Seattle by grass roots activists who, in late 2014, discovered that thousands of animals would be held captive, abused and killed in the university’s proposed hidden laboratory.

The University of Washington experiments on baby monkeys. No New Animal Lab aims to stop the institution from building a lab for more animals.

On Friday night, activists staged a disruptive protest at the Empire State Building, where Skanska’s main office is located. To the delight of activists and pedestrians who recognized him, actor and social justice activist James Cromwell participated in the protest. Following the protest, Mr. Cromwell gave a rousing speech about his advocacy during a Know Your Rights seminar at NYU Law School.

Activists with No New Animal Lab march through Richard Cavallaro’s neighborhood in Huntington, NY (photo: No New Animal Lab)

Skanska USA CEO Richard Cavallaro (photo: No New Animal Lab)

No New Animal Lab Protests at the home of Skanska USA CEO Richard Cavallaro (photo: No New Animal Lab)

Please visit No New Animal Lab to learn more about the group’s campaign and to join and/or support their efforts.

When Laurie Glimcher returned to her Upper East Side apartment building after walking her dog, she found 15 activists protesting and informing her neighbors that she left 66 chimps to die in Liberia —  “Depriving Chimps of Food and Water, Laurie Glimcher – Primate Slaughter.”

Glimcher, who served on the board of the New York Blood Center (NYBC) when the organization decided to abandon its surviving former lab chimps, has been targeted by activists with seven protests at her home and at Cornell Medical College, where she is the Dean.

Laurie Glimcher attempts to ignore protesters at her building as she returns from walking her dog, who she presumably does provide with food and water.

In late October, one month after the protests began, Glimcher resigned from the NYBC board in an apparent attempt to extricate herself from the scandal. Activists, however, continue to target her because her resignation did nothing to help the chimps abandoned on her watch.

After a two hour protest, the remaining activists pose for a photo at Laurie Glimcher’s building.

In March, 2015, NYBC cut all funding for the chimps, leaving them to die of starvation and thirst. The organization has attempted to justify its decision on the grounds that the chimps are owned by the government of Liberia. What NYBC has not acknowledged is that it was their researchers who created the group of captive chimps by kidnapping them from the jungle and breeding them at its laboratory in Liberia.

Chimps abandoned by New York Blood Center Board Members, including Laurie Glimcher, Dean of Cornell Medical College

NYBC is now attempting to shift the responsibility for the care of these chimps to animal advocacy groups, which have neither the resources nor the obligation to use their limited funds to pay for long-term care of the chimps. NYBC earned several hundred million dollars in royalties off of the research conducted on these chimps and publicly promised to provide them with lifelong care when the studies concluded.

NYBC states on its website that the charity cannot divert funds from its lifesaving work to “other efforts,” but it can pay its executives hundreds of thousands of dollars?

When news broke that NYBC had abandoned the chimps, the Humane Society of the United States created a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to pay for their care as a stopgap measure.

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.