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One minute after Dr. Laurie Glimcher began speaking at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, animal rights advocates launched out of their seats to disrupt – and ruin – her presentation. Glimcher, who served on the board of the New York Blood Center (NYBC) when the organization decided to abandon 66 chimpanzees on islands in Liberia, has refused to address the crisis since advocates approached her in mid-2015.

In May, 2015, the NY Times reported that NYBC had “withdrawn all funding” for its former lab chimpanzees, leaving the animals to die of starvation and thirst. With virtually no resources and burdened by the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, volunteers in Liberia 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.

Laurie Glimcher is escorted out of the room during the disruption.

In 2015 and 2016, activists in NYC staged almost twenty protests targeting Dr. Glimcher at her Upper East Side home and at Cornell Medical College, where she served as the Dean.  Activists in Boston have taken over the campaign because Glimcher moved to Boston to become the CEO of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

Animal rights activists in Philadelphia disrupted Laurie Glimcher, who served on NY Blood Center board when it abandoned chimpanzees

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 the NY Blood Center to provide lifelong care to their former laboratory chimps.

In a letter to the NY Blood Center, Jane Goodall said the organization has a moral obligation to pay for the chimps’ care.

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.

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.

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

Chaos unfolded when activists pushed back against Cornell Medical College security guards who tried to stop a legal protest against the school’s dean, Dr. Laurie Glimcher. As a member of the board of the New York Blood Center (NYBC), Dr. Glimcher signed off on the organization’s plan to abandon 66 chimpanzees in Liberia with no food or water.

Activists have staged three protests at Cornell Medical College demanding that Dr. Glimcher reinstate funding for NYBC’s ex-lab chimps. During the first two protests, students, faculty and staff exiting the building were instructed by school officials to ignore the activists, and they were given handouts exonerating Dr. Glimcher.

A man exiting Cornell spits on an activist protesting Dr. Laurie Glimcher

When that strategy backfired, by triggering a louder and more disruptive activist presence, Cornell’s security team diverted people leaving the premises to a side exit and then created a human blockade to keep activists several hundred feet away. The school’s approach again backfired, as the increased repression only served to generate more outrage from both the activists and people exiting Cornell who were disturbed by the commotion.

Cornell security guards block activists from protesting on a public sidewalk

NYBC left its former chimps on six islands near Monrovia, the country’s capital, with no food or water after experimenting on them for 30 years; earning $500 million in royalties off of the research; and promising to provide them with lifelong care.

In a letter to the NY Blood Center, Jane Goodall said the organization has a “moral obligation” to pay for the chimps’ 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.

Activists demand that NYBC board member Laurie Glimcher reinstates funding for the group’s ex-lab chimps