Crowd Funding Efforts and Ricky Gervais Helping to Save Chimpanzees

Microgiving proudly supports Ricky Gervais’ crowd funding efforts.  The world renowned comedian, often poking fun at many things in today’s society including the latest foibles of Charlie Sheen,  isn’t laughing about the plight of 14 chimpanzees recently moved to a Texas laboratory.  The chimps have been slated for use in dangerous and painful medical experiments, a program funded by the U.S. government.

Gervais recently penned a letter to the Director of the National Institutes of Health.  “Scientists around the world are deeply concerned about the ethical and scientific problems associated with using humankind’s closest living genetic relatives in painful and invasive experiments.  Over the past few decades, we’ve learned that chimpanzees are astonishingly smart and deeply sensitive beings.  That is a key reason why the United Kingdom banned licenses for experiments on chimpanzees more than a decade ago.”

Crowd Funding: Efforts to Save Chimpanzees

Charity organizations around the world have been battling to save the chimpanzees for years with varying degrees of success.  New Zealand, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands and Belgium have all stopped invasive chimpanzee experiments.

Gervais went on to say in his letter that he knew the US federal government was currently examining the moral and also the scientific problems associated with chimpanzee experiments.  He added that he felt it was not right to keep the 14 chimpanzees at Texas Biomed, where they were still being used in invasive experiments.

It is hoped that the Director of the National Institutes of Health will listen to those involved in crowd funding efforts and cease the operation.

Tags: Charity Organizations, Crowd Funding, Fundraising, MicroGiving, philanthropy