1993-1994: IDA learns of plans to lease 150 Air Force Chimpanzees to Fred Coulston, a notorious toxicologist and primate experimenter.

1994: IDA begins its investigation of The Coulston Foundation, which will last eight years and result in international media attention, intense Congressional scrutiny, and the historic closure of the lab.

1995-1996: IDA, with vital assistance from Jane Goodall and other animal protection groups, convinces Congress to block transfer of 150 Air Force chimpanzees to The Coulston Foundation and set up a competitive bidding process that will determine the chimpanzees’ future.

1995-1996: IDA exposes violations of law at New York University which leads to demise of Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates and the permanent retirement of over 100 chimpanzees in that lab from research.

1995-2001: IDA provides inside information and research to the USDA that results in an unprecedented four sets of formal USDA charges against The Coulston Foundation for grave and multiple violations of the Animal Welfare Act.

1997: IDA testifies before a National Academy of Sciences panel calling for an end to chimpanzee research.

1998: IDA vociferously protests the Air Force’s giveaway of 111 Air Force chimps to The Coulston Foundation. IDA provides critical support to a lawsuit filed against the Air Force by the Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care (now known as SaveTheChimps), which eventually resulted in the permanent retirement of 21 chimpanzees to the Center’s sanctuary in Florida.

1999: IDA testifies before NIH against a proposal to use a mutant strain of HIV that can gravely sicken chimpanzees. NIH drops plans to proceed with the project.

1999: IDA files first of multiple complaints with the FDA against The Coulston Foundation for violations of regulations governing data integrity and human safety. These complaints resulted in the FDA’s first-ever disqualification of an entire laboratory. The FDA’s action and resulting publicity decimated Coulston’s private client base.

1999: Based on information provided by our network of courageous whistleblowers, IDA stops pharmaceutical giant Pfizer from performing an extremely invasive diet study on chimpanzees at The Coulston Foundation.

2000: IDA testifies before Congress about the abhorrent conditions of the Coulston Foundation and the NIH’s continued and illegal financial and logistical support of the lab. IDA calls for an investigation of the NIH and reissues our call for an end to chimpanzee research.

2001: After years of intense media scrutiny, public and Congressional pressure, NIH is forced to stop its illegal funding of The Coulston Foundation. NIH takes over ownership of the former Air Force chimpanzee lab at the Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, which The Coulston Foundation had been operating. This move is a death knell for Coulston’s chimpanzee testing business.

NIH renames the lab the Alamogordo Primate Facility and contracts with Charles River Laboratories to operate it.

2002: The Coulston Foundation goes under in the face of an eight-year campaign against it led by In Defense of Animals. This is the first time in history that an entire lab has been forced to close as a result of campaigns by animal protection groups, spearheaded by IDA. Coulston sells all of its buildings and donates chimpanzees and monkeys to the state-of-the-art SaveTheChimps sanctuary. Over 300 chimpanzees and monkeys are consequently permanently retired from research, thanks to SaveTheChimps and the crucial funding provided by the Arcus Foundation.

2003: Based on information provided by IDA, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce launches a broad investigation of the NIH’s oversight and management of billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded research grants.

2004: Alamogordo, New Mexico District Attorney Scot Key files historic criminal cruelty charges against Charles River Laboratories for the negligent deaths of chimpanzees at the NIH’s Alamogordo Primate Facility. The D.A. takes this action after IDA provides evidence of wrongdoing provided by IDA’s network of courageous whistleblowers. After a year-long independent criminal investigation conducted by a 24-year police veteran, the D.A.’s office confirms IDA’s information and files the unprecedented criminal charges. The case is currently on appeal.

2004-present: IDA files a federal lawsuit against the NIH for its blatant refusal to release public records relating to the care of chimpanzees at the NIH’s Alamogordo Primate Facility. Included in these records are documents relating to the deaths of chimpanzees that were the subject of the New Mexico District Attorney’s criminal charges. The federal lawsuit is ongoing.

2004: IDA exposes cover-up in drug-testing experiments on chimpanzees conducted by a Minnesota investigator with financial interest in the childhood leukemia and HIV drug he was testing, TXU-PAP. The investigator, Fatih Uckun, failed to report that 3 of 8 chimpanzees died during the testing of the drug. IDA’s action results in a front-page Minneapolis Star-Tribune expose on the issue.

2005-present: As part of its expanding whistleblower protection program, IDA battles the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s New Iberia Research Center, which has taken the place of The Coulston Foundation as the world’s largest chimpanzee lab, over its dismissal of an employee who courageously exposed abuse of primates at the lab. IDA Research Director Eric Kleiman is an official member of Ms. Fakier’s legal team and has provided substantial research support in her lawsuit against the lab.

2005: The Louisiana Board of Ethics files unprecedented ethics charges against the New Iberia chimpanzee lab, alleging that the lab illegally retaliated against the whistleblower, Narriman Fakier. The charges are currently on hold pending the outcome of Ms. Fakier’s civil lawsuit against New Iberia.

2004-2006: IDA assists in production of the Nature/PBS documentary produced, written and directed by Emmy-winner Allison Argo about the chimpanzees rescued from the Coulston and NYU chimpanzee labs. The program, “Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History” tells the story of the chimpanzees lucky enough to survive the horrors of the labs. The film airs Nov. 5, 2006 to wide acclaim.

2007: New Iberia Research Center's fourth attempt to dismiss the whistleblower lawsuit fails, as Ms. Fakier's attorney calls IDA Research Director Eric Kleiman an "indispensable" part of her legal team.

Ms. Fakier confirms under oath that Eric Kleiman helped to draft the lawsuit, which exposes shocking abuse of chimpanzees and monkeys at the lab.

New Iberia complains about the publicity and being "bombarded" with letters and postcards but also fails in its attempt to ascertain whether IDA is funding the lawsuit ­ a crucial victory protecting the First Amendment rights of all whistleblowers to free speech and free association, not just Ms. Fakier's. The lawsuit proceeds, as does IDA's campaign against the lab. IDA terms the lab the "New Coulston," not only because it is now the world's largest chimpanzee lab but also because it tests drugs on chimpanzees ­ and has even positively cited Coulston's 1982 tests of industrial solvents in chimpanzees in a published paper.

IDA blasts the New Mexico Court of Appeals after it issues a shocking ruling that found that no matter how "negligent, or even deliberately neglectful" Charles River Laboratories' conduct was, it is exempt from prosecution under the New Mexico cruelty statute. IDA's statements, and the ruling, receive widespread media coverage. In response to the Appeals Court ruling, famed primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall; Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez; a majority (three of five) of the veterinarians serving on the New Mexico Board of Veterinary Medicine; and the former Attorney General, former Governor and two former prosecutors in New Mexico file "friend of the court" briefs and join the current Attorney General in urging the New Mexico Supreme Court to review the Appeals Court ruling. The petitions receive widespread media coverage. The New Mexico Supreme Court agrees to review the case ­ only the third time since New Mexico became a state in 1912 that the Court will review a criminal animal cruelty case prosecuted by the state.

"Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History" filmmaker Allison Argo wins a News & Documentary Emmy for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Research." The documentary tells the stories of hundreds of chimpanzees saved from chimpanzee research labs, two of which‹The Coulston Foundation and New York University's Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates were shut down amidst intense IDA investigations and campaigns.

The program was written, produced and directed by Allison Argo, an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker. IDA Research Director Eric Kleiman provided Ms. Argo with extensive support and documentation relating to IDA's 13 years of work on these issues. We congratulate Ms. Argo and PBS for bringing this important and painful subject to the attention of viewers nationwide. Order the film.

2008:  IDA wins an important victory in the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the NIH when a federal District Court Judge issues a final ruling finding that the chimpanzee medical records from the Alamogordo Primate Facility -- including those of Rex, Ashley and Topsy, the subjects of the unprecedented criminal animal cruelty charges -- are public records and should be turned over to IDA. This decision opens up the APF to public scrutiny – scrutiny that is especially vital considering the fact that these chimpanzees have been subjected to years upon years of invasive experiments.  The Judge not only wrote two decisions upholding IDA and the public’s right to have these records, but also granted IDA a public interest fee waiver for over 5,000 pages of documents.

Consistent with its longstanding attempts to evade public scrutiny, the NIH initially denied IDA's fee waiver request, but the Judge rejected this and ordered the agency to grant the fee waiver immediately. On June 12, 2008, the NIH continued its longstanding attempts to prevent disclosure of these records by appealing the Judge’s decision. IDA will vigorously fight for what the NIH dreads: upholding the public’s right to know just how the NIH is treating these chimpanzees.

IDA helps to fund the open access publication costs of the recently published peer-reviewed scientific paper supporting a global ban on chimpanzee experiments, available at PEHM.

After refusing to allow Dr. Jane Goodall, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez, a majority (three of five) of the veterinarians serving on the New Mexico Board of Veterinary Medicine, and the former Attorney General, former Governor and two former prosecutors in New Mexico to file "friend of the court" briefs, the New Mexico Supreme Court dismisses the criminal cruelty case against Charles River Laboratories without a decision.  This means that the egregious Appeals Court ruling that no matter how "negligent, or even deliberately neglectful" Charles River Laboratories' conduct was, it is exempt from prosecution under the New Mexico cruelty statute, stands.  This despite the fact that the New Mexico legislature had specifically amended the cruelty statute in 2001 to remove the blanket exemption for research labs such as Charles River, specifically because of abuses at this very same facility and these very same chimpanzees when it was operated by the Coulston Foundation.  Although the friend of the court petition filed by the former Attorney General and Governor of New Mexico specifically mentioned this 2001 Amendment -- as did the District Attorney -- the state of New Mexico never mentioned this fact in its written or oral arguments during the appeals process.

IDA’s lawsuit against the NIH and the civil lawsuit against New Iberia proceed as part of IDA’s longstanding campaign to end chimpanzee research and expose cruelty in labs -- a groundbreaking 15-year campaign encompassing law enforcement, Congress, the courts, legislation, the media, stopping research, and continuing to make history on behalf of our closest genetic relatives.

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