The United States, which used 57,000 primates in 2000, remains the largest consumer of these animals. (1) It is five times more than in the European Union. In November 6, 1997, Home Office Minister Lord Williams of Mostyn announced the complete ban of experimentation on great apes, thus explaining the measure: "This is a matter of morality. The cognitive and behavioral characteristics and qualities of these animals mean it is unethical to treat them as expendable for research. (2)"

The second event followed an intense campaign in New Zealand, when activists proposed to the New Zealand government to ban experiments on apes upon the basis of their cognitive and emotional capacities.In 1999, it enacted a provision in its animal welfare legislation to give apes a legal and a moral status. Great apes, such as chimpanzees, have been thought to be valuable tools of research precisely because they are our closest relatives, sharing more than 98% of DNA in common with humans.

However, they are not good models for AIDS research, where they had been used for at least fifteen years. Their worldwide population was close to 2 million at the turn of the 19th century. They are now fewer than 150,000 and this number is going down. Chimps, like many other animal species in the world are endangered because they are hunted and because locals and industries destroy their natural habitat.

Since 8 out of 10 primates taken away from the wild die before arriving at the laboratories (AIR France-KLM is the major company involved in the air shipment of nonhuman primates to the labs throughout the world), breeding strategies were introduced in the United States and Europe to supply the laboratories. The scientists working in the field of epilepsy would be happy to find a satisfactory animal model and if any, it would be a primate but the use of primates poses financial and ethical problems. It is well known that several species of monkeys including baboons are being "kidnapped" from Africa or China for experimental procedures in the West. These primates are often held in appalling conditions before shipment and they suffer greatly during long period of ground and air transportation. When local trappers catch baboons, they tie them together with rope and leave them there for several days until the dealers come to collect them. Once an order from overseas laboratories has been confirmed, the primates are trucked in crates to about a 10 hour-drive away, with the main buyers coming from the U.S. (3)

According the National Institute of Health's documents, the Chimpanzee Breeding and Research Colony at University of Texas at Bastrop produces chimpanzees that are physically and behaviorally capable of reproduction for retention either as breeders or as seed breeding stock for other production colonies. The animals in excess of these needs are available for critical biomedical research and testing. The breeding colony of chimps is housed in eight 4,500-square-feet outdoor corrals in multiple-male family groups.

The Chimpanzee Breeding and Research Colony of Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center at Emory Atlanta University established a self-sustaining population of Pan troglodytes in co-operation with similar NIH-funded projects as to ensure availability of normal chimpanzees for research and testing. The Chimpanzee Breeding and Research Colony of the Coulston Foundation at Holloman Air Force Base consisted of 1,363 macaques and 325 chimpanzees. The chimpanzee-breeding colony included 85 breeding and young chimpanzees. Half of the offspring was reserved for future breeding; the others were available for collaborative research in vaccine development and infectious disease studies, especially retrovirology and hepatitis, in chimpanzees and macaques. As well, studies of the efficacy and safety of potential new pharmaceuticals, including routine and special toxicology, metabolism, pharmacokinetics and immunogenicity studies were carried out. Some research was done in primate reproduction. The Coulston Foundation shut down in September 2002. The 266 primates under the foundation's care were transferred to the Florida-based non-profit Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care. (4)

In Europe, experts expect breeding programs to be centralized in research centers, including a complete infrastructure and offering their expertise to universities and industries directed to human health. The European Primate Research Network (EUPREN) is an organization that promotes and exchanges information on non-human primate research in Europe to ensure the quality and optimization of research and contribute to the development of such "big mall" of research on non-human primates. Animal groups remarked that despite the provisions under the European directive 86/609 that regulate the welfare of laboratory animals, many primates will continue to suffer in France, but also in Britain and Belgium because the regulations failed to be enforced (5 and 6).