Owen Garrick, a businessman based in Oakland, California, ignored all of the courteous letters and emails asking for a meeting to discuss the 66 chimps abandoned in Liberia by the New York Blood Center, where he serves on the board. It should therefore have come as no surprise to him when local animal rights activists showed up at his desk wielding a banner and posters and staged a disruption in the lobby of his building.

Owen Garrick looks up from his desk to find activists with a banner and posters displaying his name and face

Only the activists didn’t visit Garrick’s place of business to talk because he had already made it clear that he wasn’t amenable. Instead, they showed up to educate his co-workers and neighbors about the moral crime he committed by leaving chimps to die and to inform Garrick that they will continue to protest until he and his colleagues at the NY Blood Center fulfill their promise to provide the chimps with lifelong care.

When protesters confronted Garrick in his office, his only verbal reaction was, “I’m going to get security.” He did, however, deliver a palpable non-verbal cue — bewilderment about how to handle a group of activists staging a loud protest in the lobby of his building during the lunchtime rush.

Owen Garrick paced back and forth as activists protested in the lobby

Owen Garrick paces the lobby while activists stage disruption

The activists suspected that Garrick was especially alarmed by the disruption being staged in his name because of his apparent effort to remain anonymous in the building. In the company directory in the lobby, his business, Bridge Clinical Research, is not listed. What is listed is a charity created by Garrick and his wife. Did Garrick intentionally leave his business off of the building directory because he is running it out of the office of his charity?

Owen Garrick’s company, Bridge Clinical Research, is not listed on his building’s directory

And why does Garrick use different suite numbers for the same office – Suite 013 and Suite LL13?

Owen Garrick runs his company out of the office of his charity

Primatologist Bob Ingersoll confronts Owen Garrick in his office

Please call Owen Garrick at the following two numbers, and ask him to reinstate funding for the chimps who he left to die with no food or water:
(510) 251-0490
(510) 835-1747

As activists in New York City gathered to stage a three-venue protest to demand that the NY Blood Center (NYBC) reinstate funding for chimps who they abandoned in Liberia and the Ivory Coast, an NYPD officer criticized protesters for over ten minutes, arguing that they should target ISIS, which is killing “millions” of people, and protect Christians in Egypt instead of “talking about monkeys.”

Upon viewing this footage from the protest, The Gothamist posted a story entitled “The Best Protest Video of 2015”

Following the shocking tirade, activists staged protests at NYBC’s headquarters and at the nearby office and home of Laurie Glimcher, the dean of Cornell Medical College, who served on the board of NYBC when the decision was made to abandon the chimps.

NYPD officer says activists should be focused on ISIS and Christians being killed in Egypt.

Prior to the protest, an anonymous source at NYBC informed organizers that employees would be directed out of the back entrance. A team of activists was therefore stationed at that location in order to ensure that people exiting the building were educated about their employer’s crime.

Activists confront NY Blood Center employees as they leave the building from the emergency exit in a failed effort to avoid the protest.

At 5:15 p.m., activists marched to nearby Cornell Medical College to inform students, faculty and staff that the decision by their Dean, Laurie Glimcher, to resign from NYBC’s board did nothing to help the chimps who she agreed to abandon while she was a member. Cornell students appeared to be exasperated by the presence of loud activists chanting outside of the library windows.

Activists chant with fervor at the windows of Cornell Medical College’s library where students are studying.

At 5:45 p.m., activists marched to Dr. Glimcher’s nearby apartment, where several of her neighbors asked police officers what could be done to silence the disruptive activists.

When Laurie Glimcher’s neighbors complain about the disruptive protests, activists tell them to “take it up with Glimcher.”

Will Dr. Glimcher continue to invite disruptive protests at her home and office by defending NYBC’s decision to abandon the chimps, or will she publicly demand that NYBC fulfill its promise to provide lifelong care for the chimps whose lives they destroyed?

Please sign the Care2 petition to demand that Citigroup, one of NYBC’s biggest donors, cut funding until the organization reinstates funding for the chimpanzees.

On November 16th, two dozen activists staged a fourth protest at the home and office of Dr. Laurie Glimcher, urging her to issue a public statement demanding that the New York Blood Center (NYBC) reinstate funding for the chimps who the organization abandoned in Liberia after conducting experiments on them for 30 years and promising to provide them with lifelong care.

Dr. Glimcher, the Dean of Weill-Cornell Medicine, resigned from the Board of Directors of the NYBC as a result of the protests, but her decision to walk away from the scandal did nothing to help the 66 chimps who she and the other board members left to die.

Activists knock on the window at Cornell Medical School’s library to ensure that students know that their Dean, Laurie Glimcher, abandoned chimpanzees with no food or water.

During the 2.5 hour protest, activists spoke to Dr. Glimcher’s neighbors, colleagues and students about the scandal. One woman, who claimed to be employed by Cornell, attempted to stop the loud chanting by telling activists that the protest was turning away blood donors. Cornell’s medical school, however, does not have a blood donation center.

A hungry chimpanzee asks Laurie Glimcher’s doorman for food. Glimcher lives in a 6 bedroom, 7 bathroom condo on the posh Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Laurie Glimcher’s neighbors are growing increasingly frustrated by the loud chanting outside of their windows, but activists say the chants and protests will continue until Dr. Glimcher makes amends.

Activists are committed to holding Laurie Glimcher accountable until she takes action on behalf of the chimps abandoned on her watch.

The protest comes one week after over 100 activists staged a massive demonstration at NYBC’s 50th anniversary fundraising gala where the organization’s donors were forced to navigate their way around a moving picket at the entrance to the building.

Activists in NYC protest the NY Blood Center and Laurie Glimcher, who served on the board when the decision was made to leave 66 chimps to die

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 NYBC board members at their homes and offices.

By leaving 66 chimps to die of starvation, Dr. Laurie Glimcher has failed to fulfill her promise to abide by the Hippocratic Oath.

On November 5th, over 100 activists from ten states, including California, Texas and Montana, staged a massive protest at the New York Blood Center’s 50th anniversary gala, demanding that the organization’s board of directors reinstate funding for the lab chimpanzees who they abandoned on islands in Liberia with no food or water.

During a rally before the protest, Jane Velez-Mitchell (Jane UnChained) and Bob Ingersoll (primatologist featured in documentary film Project Nim) delivered remarks about the scandal and inspired the crowd to continue to be a voice for the chimps until the blood center fulfills its promise to provide them with lifelong care.

NYBC donors did not anticipate encountering over 100 protesters as they entered the gala

As guests began to arrive, activists quickly exited the barricades and staged a moving picket at the entrance of Cipriani, the venue where NYBC’s gala was held. Hundreds of donors were forced to navigate their way around the protesters in order to enter the building.

NYBC donors were forced to navigate their way through the moving picket line to enter the gala

Activists distributing handouts at the periphery of the protest said that many gala attendees were unaware of the scandal and were outrage to learn that NYBC abandoned at least 66 chimps.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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 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.

“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?

https://youtu.be/Rorv3NBl3F0

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.

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