In an exclusive ENQUIRER interview True Blood star KRISTIN BAUER rages against cruel and inhuman animal testing!
Kristin’s blood is boiling – over a plan to conduct painful medical experiments on 200 aging chimpanzees.
"It is not right!" an outraged Kristin told The ENQUIRER in an exclusive interview. "What kind of people are we if this is how we treat our closest genetic relative?"
Kristin – who plays luscious vampire Pam on the HBO hit – and her musician/husband Abri van Straten are longtime advocates for the humane treatment of animals and live with dogs they rescued from animal shelters.
The star is protesting a plan devised by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to ship the 200 chimps to the Southwest National Primate Research Center in San Antonio, Texas, where they can be used in painful, invasive experiments.
Since 2001, the animals have been housed at the Alamogordo Primate Facility in New Mexico, where they cannot be used for invasive research.
The heartbreaking eviction plan is strongly opposed by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which advocates the banning of all animal research.
On a recent trip to South Africa with her husband, a deeply moved Kristin recalled: "I saw four kinds of monkeys in the trees and a troop of baboons crossed our lawn. It was absolutely amazing. It is inconceivable after such a day to think of them being experimented on.
"I grew up in Wisconsin with horses, chickens, cats and dogs. When you grow up appreciating all life, basking in its beauty, marveling at it, it is very hard to do nothing when you see feeling, loving creatures being tortured."
The star’s impassioned drive to halt the government’s plans for the chimps is strongly endorsed by Dr. John J. Pippin, senior medical and research adviser for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
"This plan is scientifically, economically and ethically misguided," he told The ENQUIRER.
"As a physician and former animal researcher, I’m aware that chimpanzee experiments are not a good way to advance research into HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, malarias and other diseases seen in humans.
"Their use for such research has been an abject failure, as proved by the inability to duplicate these diseases or develop vaccines for them using chimpanzees.
"The isolation and invasive experiments chimpanzees endure in laboratories often cause self-mutilation, depression and even post-traumatic stress disorder."
Kristin has joined Gov. Richardson and the Physicians Committee in a request for the NIH to create a safe sanctuary for the chimps, where they now live in New Mexico.
The star also urges ENQUIRER readers to help by visiting the Physicians Committee website at www.pcrm.org to learn about the chimps’ tragic plight and express their opposition to the NIH plan.
