Crystal Alba/Project Chimps

Speak up for chimpanzees!

The National Institutes of Health has betrayed their commitment to retire all federally owned and supported chimpanzees to sanctuary. In 2018 the agency said it would create a new process to assess the health status of each chimpanzee in their facilities and only those few chimpanzees who were in extremely poor health would be kept in the laboratory instead of being retired to sanctuary at Chimp Haven. We had hoped that NIH would live up to that promise, but they have instead announced they will be transferring none of the remaining chimpanzees housed at the Alamogordo Primate Research Facility to sanctuary at Chimp Haven. This is unacceptable.

The NIH has an obligation under the CHIMP Act to send eligible chimpanzees to Chimp Haven, and it’s incredibly hard to believe that all the chimpanzees are all too sick to be transferred and given an opportunity to thrive in a sanctuary setting. In addition, the “independent panel” that made that determination simply wasn’t independent at all -- it did not include a primate behaviorist or ethicist or a veterinarian with sanctuary experience and instead was made up of three of NIH’s own veterinarians.

Forcing these animals to live out the rests of their lives, after they have already suffered so much, in a research facility is beyond the pale, and we demand NIH do better.

TAKE ACTION
Please send a message to the National Institutes of Health urging them to hold a truly independent non-biased panel of chimpanzee experts and ethicists to review their decision to keep all of the remaining chimpanzees at the Alamogordo Research Facility instead of sending them to sanctuary.
These chimpanzees have already suffered too much at the hands of humans, it is our responsibility to give them the chance at a better life.

This action alert is for U.S. residents. International advocates, please visit Humane Society International.

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Dear Director Collins,

In light of the NIH's announcement that they plan to send none of the remaining chimpanzees at the Alamogordo Research Facility to sanctuary at Chimp Haven, I am asking that the National Institutes of Health include independent, non-biased voices on the panel making determinations on the fate of these chimpanzees.

Hundreds of chimpanzees, of all ages and health conditions, have moved to Chimp Haven since the NIH announced that the agency would no longer fund invasive chimpanzee research and would retire all federally owned and supported chimpanzees to sanctuary in 2015. There has not been a single death during transport, and it is clear that the chimpanzees, overall, receive better care in sanctuary environments.

As such, it is important to me that the National Institutes of Health has a true independent panel review these determinations that none of the remaining chimpanzees at Alamogordo can be transferred to sanctuary. This panel should include, at least, a primate behaviorist and a veterinarian with chimpanzee sanctuary experience, instead of simply relying on NIH's own veterinarians who have rubber stamped the desire of the laboratory to hold onto the chimpanzees, ensuring they continue to receive taxpayer dollars.

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