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As hundreds of workers entered and exited their office building in downtown Oakland on March 18th, one thing became clear to the activists who were outside protesting their neighbor from Suite 013:  Most of them already knew that Owen Garrick abandoned chimpanzees in Liberia from news coverage and prior protests, and most were grateful that people were speaking out on behalf of the chimps.

“Owen Garrick must be using a back entrance and taking the stairs in order to avoid facing people in his building,” said protest organizer and primatologist Bob Ingersoll. “After three protests, his neighbors have told us they know who he is and about the moral crime he committed.”

Advocates distributed several hundred handouts to Owen Garrick’s neighbors in Oakland, CA

Activists stage protest in Oakland at the office building of NY Blood Center’s Owen Garrick

Activists are protesting Owen Garrick and his colleagues on the board of the New York Blood Center because they all bear responsibility for the organization’s decision to abandon their former lab chimpanzees on desert islands with no food or water after promising to provide them with lifelong care. For a thirty year period starting in the mid-1970s, NYBC conducted invasive research experiments on over 400 hundred chimpanzees in Liberia, where they could capture chimps in the wild, breed them in captivity and experiment on them with little regulatory oversight.

Curious neighbors open their windows to find out why people are chanting in front of their building

In May, 2015, the NY Times reported that the blood center walked away from its $25,000 monthly obligation, leaving the chimps to die of starvation and thirst while arguing that animal welfare 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.

Chimps abandoned by the New York Blood Center are fed once daily with money donated by the public

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.

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.

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

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