Case Study: New England Anti-Vivisection Society

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U.S. Public Opinion of Chimpanzee Research, Support for a Ban, and Related Issues

HRC conducted a survey of 1,678 U.S. adults in early September 2005 to evaluate public opinion regarding the use of chimpanzees for medical research. HRC designed the study on behalf of the New England Anti-Vivisection Society (NEAVS) to help understand the current state of public opinion and identify "leverage points" to foster greater support for eliminating chimpanzee research. NEAVS's President is a psychologist who understands the importance of surveying opinions before making crucial campaign decisions and strategies. The survey included questions about general animal research, knowledge of and support for chimpanzee research, and a series of specific "what-if" scenarios to gauge potential support for limits on chimpanzee research.

Background, Approach, and Challenges

Research Need: To understand the current state of public opinion on the issue and identify "leverage points" to foster greater support for eliminating chimpanzee research.

Approach to Solution: The NEAVS study began with a review of all secondary data available on chimpanzee experimentation, collected from a variety of advocacy and academic sources. HRC followed up the secondary analysis with a national public opinion survey designed to identify specific conditions under which people would support a ban on chimpanzee research. The survey used a combination of questions from previous surveys and new questions designed to elicit information relevant to NEAVS's new campaign, Project R&R: Release & Restitution for Chimpanzees in U.S. Laboratories.

Information and Tools: The survey was conducted online with controlled distribution to ensure representation of U.S. adults and was completed with the assistance of Survey Sampling, Inc., one of the largest research panels in the U.S. The survey invitations were sent using balanced sampling procedures for distribution across age and gender, resulting in demographics that closely mirror those of the overall population. HRC used the results to analyze and segment the U.S. population into different profiles based on their attitudes toward bans on chimpanzee research.

Challenges: NEAVS wanted to understand the true state of public opinion, which required developing a survey that described different types of chimpanzee research without being biased (e.g. using sensational language). HRC's approach to survey design allowed NEAVS to obtain meaningful and valid results that could be used with the public and media (see link to press release, below). All online surveys are subject to potential underrepresentation of specific groups, including older or lower income populations (generally ethnic minorities). In this case, the respondent set included a slight bias in favor of female respondents, but all other demographic variables are consistent with the overall U.S. adult population.

Solution and Results

In 2001, the Doris Day Animal League found that more than 3 in 4 adults in the U.S. believe that "the government should pay for permanent retirement to a primary sanctuary for chimpanzees who are no longer used for laboratory or experimentation purposes." The release and restitution of these chimpanzees receives wide public support that continues today.

The 2005 NEAVS survey also found that the vast majority of U.S. adults (74%) support permanent retirement to sanctuaries for chimpanzees who are no longer used in experiments. Moreover, nearly the same number (71%) believes that a chimpanzee used for more than 10 years in research should be retired. These results indicate that U.S. adults continue to be concerned about the plight of chimpanzees used in research. Other key findings from the NEAVS survey include:

• Two-thirds (67%) believe that chimpanzees who are ill or weakened from experiments should be retired.
• Four in five people (80%) support the use of alternatives to chimpanzees at least some of the time.
• Half would support the government's use of taxpayer money to fund development of alternatives to chimpanzee testing.
• Three times as many Americans do not approve of using the same chimpanzee in multiple experiments as those who support it.
• More than twice as many Americans do not believe that chimpanzees younger than seven years old should be used in experiments as those who support their use.

Source: NEAVS press release, June 2006

Outcomes and Next Steps

The results of this study clearly show strong support for placing limits on chimpanzee experimentation. These findings were instrumental in helping to develop the NEAVS campaign, Project Release & Restitution (http://www.releasechimps.org). Project R&R is an education and advocacy campaign to end the use of chimpanzees in biomedical research in the United States, and to help provide rescue and permanent restitution to chimpanzees used in research. Since its launch in April 2006, the campaign has been gaining momentum, with support for chimpanzees coming from unlikely sources (see sidebar, below).

The lessons learned from this study are ongoing as NEAVS continues to use the results in their campaign. From a research standpoint, NEAVS learned that consumer segmentation can provide tremendous insight into public support for their issues and goals. By quantifying the extent to which people support (or oppose) animal protection issues, advocates can better understand the attitudes they are trying to change and identify messages that will resonate with the most people. For the next phase of research, NEAVS is considering another national survey to further explore these issues with the U.S. public.

More Information

Client: New England Anti-Vivisection Society (NEAVS)

Author: Humane Research Council (HRC)

Date of Original Research Study: September 2005

Contact Person: Che Green, HRC; (206) 905-9887; cgreen@humaneresearch.org

Sidebar -- 5/24/2007

In May 2007, the U.S. National Center for Research Resources' (NCRR, part of the National Institutes of Health) announced that it would permanently cease breeding of government-owned chimpanzees for research. Notably, the NCRR expressed a sense of responsibility to existing federally owned chimpanzees, stating that it would "...continue to honor its commitments to the existing chimpanzee facilities, including the federal sanctuary for chimpanzees that are no longer needed in biomedical research." This is a recent and relevant example of how limits on certain types of uses of chimpanzees can potentially receive support from even unlikely sources.