Update on the chimps abandoned on a Liberian Island and negligence by the New York Blood Bank Center
Kathleen Conlee is the Vice President of Animal Research Issues for the Humane Society of the United States in Washington, where she specializes in experimental activities carried out on animals in laboratories that result in pain and suffering. Her department makes efforts to end invasive chimpanzee experimentation and find sanctuary for chimps, end the use of animals in chemical and product testing and find unharmful alternatives. One of the Kathleen’s main projects with the Society is to put pressure on the New York Blood Bank Center which has abandoned laboratories chimps on an island off of Liberia in Africa. In the past she worked for seven years in primate breeding , managing a colony of 3000 primates, including macques, owl monkeys and lemurs. She has also performed research to derive methods to reduce primate captive stressors and ways to relieve psychologically disturbed animals, and served as a supervisor of care at the Center for Orangutan and Chimpanzee Conservation Sanctuary. Kathleen holds a degree in zoology from the University of Massachusetts and a masters degree in public administration. The Society’s website is HumaneSociety.org