R&R Project (Release and Restitution for Chimpanzees in US laboratories) is promoting a world campaign to support a bill proposal o protection of great primates – The Great Ape Protection Act – GAPA – in the United States.

The bill has been referred to several committees of North American Senate in April 2008 and seeks to prohibit invasive research on great apes. GAPA requires the permanent retirement of all federally-owned, covered great apes.

R&R is asking as most people as possible to send a message to the legislators in order for them to support the bill. The more sponsors GAP has, bigger the chance of the bill be approved and implemented.

Anyone can collaborate visiting the site http://ga1.org/campaign/gapa_2009 and sending a message to the legislators.

Time is running out for the estimated 1000 (about half of which are federally owned) chimpanzees who remain in U.S. laboratories – most of whom have been in a lab for 40 years or more! It is time for the U.S., the only remaining large scale user of chimpanzees for research in the world, to join the growing list of other nations who have banned or severely limited their use of chimpanzees.