The December 11 foreclosure lawsuit (available at http://www.vivisectioninfo.org/Coulston/foreclose.html) also requests that the Court appoint a receiver to run Coulston because it is "in danger of waste, loss or destruction if a receiver is not appointed to manage the property."

"The bank confirms what we have said for years -- Coulston management is professionally, morally and financially bankrupt," said IDA Research Director Eric Kleiman. "The U.S. Department of Agriculture must step in immediately, take over the lab as receiver, and permanently retire the chimpanzees there."

Kleiman also said exhibits in the bank's foreclosure lawsuit will be added to other documentation that IDA will be sending to "appropriate authorities."

The exhibits include two August 15, 2001 letters from the bank's attorneys notifying the lab that it owed $1.046 million, with interest accruing daily. The letters (located after page 43 of the lawsuit) clearly implied that the bank would take legal action if Coulston did not pay the outstanding loans. (In June 2001, the NIH stopped funding the lab; this money had accounted for 63 per cent of Coulston's income in 2000.)

On September 20, 2001 -- one month after the bank's letters were sent -- Coulston spokesperson Don McKinney claimed that a fire at a maintenance building had caused over $1 million in damage. However, Coulston's most recent filings with the IRS show the total capital value, after depreciation, of *all* the buildings and equipment at the lab -- including the numerous chimpanzee housing, laboratory and administrative buildings -- was $3.68 million.

The Animal Liberation Front had claimed responsibility for the fire at Coulston. Kleiman said that the ALF had also claimed responsibility for a break-in and damage last November at a facility in San Diego operated by Sierra Biomedical. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune (November 14), both Sierra and investigating authorities believed that the break-in and damage could have been caused by a disgruntled employee. The paper reported that "Authorities theorize that an employee could have inflicted the damage and notified ALF, which then took the blame."

Kleiman said that Coulston has a documented record of misleading federal agencies about its financial condition, and was so uncooperative during official USDA investigations of animal welfare violations that the federal agency was repeatedly forced to draw up subpoenas.

"We make no accusations. We believe that the proper authorities must thoroughly investigate all aspects of the fire at Coulston," said Kleiman.

"Coulston's continuing malfeasance has caused its collapse," continued Kleiman. He noted that although Coulston officials, including CEO and Founder Dr. Fred Coulston, have blamed IDA for the lab's funding losses, "the lab's private and public funding has evaporated because of Coulston's unprecedented record of violating federal laws relating to animal welfare, data integrity and human safety."

"With Coulston's richly deserved demise now a reality, the government must be held accountable for the negligent chimpanzee deaths it enabled for so many years," concluded APNM Development Director Harriette Roller. "The feds must take over Coulston and permanently retire the surviving chimpanzees."

IDA is an international animal advocacy and rescue organization based in Mill Valley, CA. APNM is a statewide animal protection organization based in Albuquerque.

Read more about IDA's campaign against the Coulston Foundation