Celebrities Join PCRM’s Push to Protect Great Apes

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi recently joined PCRM in urging Congress to ban the use of chimpanzees in invasive experiments. Actress Kristin Bauer and 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin also wrote letters asking Congress to support the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act.

Monica Seles, former world No. 1 professional tennis player and member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, wrote Florida Senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio and asked them to co-sponsor the bill.

“I’m writing because you have a unique opportunity to advance medical research in the United States and help retire chimpanzees from laboratory cages to sanctuaries,” wrote Seles. “The Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act, S. 810, will phase out invasive experiments on chimpanzees and help retire these astonishingly smart and social beings to sanctuaries.”

Last month, PCRM also delivered a petition signed by more than 2,000 Californians to California Senator Barbara Boxer.

“As residents of the state of California, we are urging you to save chimpanzees and end government waste by moving the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act through your committee toward passage on the Senate floor,” says the petition. “As chair of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, you are in a unique position to move this bill forward, and we strongly urge you to do so.”