Protesters Target Upper East Sider Howard Milstein for Abandoning Research Chimps

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Animal rights activists, who have long held a grudge against New York Blood Center chairman Howard Milstein, have started to picket his Upper East Side apartment building at night.

"Howard Milstein feed your chimps," protesters shouted Tuesday night outside 888 Park Ave.

Protesters from the animal rights organization Their Turn are targeting Milstein for his role in the NYBC's decision to abandon plans to provide lifelong care to research chimpanzees in Liberia, according to a pamphlet from the organization.

"We sent letters. We made phone calls, And, for months, we protested politely during the day," read the handout. "But Howard Milstein, chairman of the board of the New York Blood Center, has refused to engage with the community about the 66 former lab chimpanzees who he and his colleagues abandoned on islands in Liberia with no food or water. He has therefore left us with no choice but to come back at night."

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Messages to a spokesman for Their Turn and for the NYBC's media relations department have not been immediately returned.

In 2015 the NYBC decided to renege on a promise to provide lifelong care to lab chimpanzees after shutting down a biomedical research project that had been active for about 30 years, The New York Times reported in May 2015. The Liberian island where the chimpanzees are located has no fresh water and care for the animals costs an estimated $30,000 a month, according to the Times report.

While the NYBC did not immediately respond a message from Patch, there is an entire section of its website devoted to "Primates in Liberia."

"We care deeply about the welfare of the Liberian Government-owned chimpanzees which lived in a Liberian Government-owned “for profit” research center," the NYBC website read. "Along with spending substantial funds and effort caring for the chimpanzees for years after our obligation there had ended, we worked diligently to find a long-term care solution. Unfortunately, NYBC could no longer sustain diverting millions of dollars away from our lifesaving mission of providing patients over one million critically needed blood products each year."

The NYBC's decision to stop funding care efforts for the chimps was criticized by British anthropologist and monkey-whisperer Jane Goodall. In July 2015, Goodall wrote a scathing open letter to the NYBC.

"I am extremely disappointed to learn that the New York Blood Center has ignored requests by dozens of animal protection groups and thousands of individuals to renew their support for the 66 chimpanzees they have abandoned at the Vilab II sanctuary in Liberia. Instead, in a recent statement, they deny all responsibility for the care of these former research chimpanzees, stating that they are owned by the Liberian government," Goodall said.

More recently, banking giant and former NYCB donor Citigroup pledged $50,000 to the Humane Society to help care for the abandoned chimpanzees.

"We are no longer a significant supporter of the NYBC and we have no influence over its decisions. That being said, the current situation is not tolerable and we urge all parties involved to come up with a sustainable solution to ensure that these chimpanzees get the care they need," Citigroup said in a statement released in March.