Mara sisters team up to seek funding for apes

Actresses Rooney and Kate Mara have teamed up in a bid to get financial aid for a group of abandoned chimps.

The sisters recently traveled to Liberia with The Humane Society of the United States to visit more than 60 chimpanzees who were abandoned and left to die by the New York Blood Center a year ago.

The NYBC used the chimpanzees for invasive research before pulling all funding for their care in March, 2015. Now, Kate and Rooney are calling on officials at the Blood Center to renew their financial obligation to the apes.

A letter signed by the sisters reads: "People worldwide have been touched by these animals’ heartbreaking stories, and equally outraged at your irresponsible and inhumane actions.

"They want to see justice for these chimpanzees who were put though so much, lined your pockets (you reportedly made hundreds of millions of dollars off of research involving the chimpanzees) and did not deserve to be abandoned when you deemed them unprofitable."

The Humane Society of the United States has been providing financial support to keep the chimps alive.

Meanwhile, photos of the actresses' Liberia visit were taken by Carol Guzy, one of only four people to win the Pulitzer Prize four times.