The National Institutes of Health has announced that it will retire the last of its research chimpanzees. The chimps will be sent to new permanent homes as soon as a federal sanctuary has room for them.
These are the last 50 chimps that had been had been aside in 2013 when the NIH declared that it would stop using its hundreds of chimps as test subjects in medical research. These 50 had been put on standby at that time in case they were needed for a public health emergency or an extreme situation.
"It's time to say we've reached the point in the U.S. where invasive research on chimpanzees is no longer something that makes sense," said Dr. Francis Collins, director of NIH, told the Associated Press.
Now, these last chimps will be sent to a sanctuary where they can live out their days in comfort. However, it will take time to find approved space for these animals, which are the closest biological relatives to humans. Many have been infected with diseases such as HIV or hepatitis as part of medical experiments. There is only one federally approved sanctuary for chimpanzees, Chimp Haven in Keithville, Louisiana, which has many forested acres where the chimps can live.
A CNN investigation earlier this year had found that the NIH had fallen behind in retiring its chimpanzees. Many of the research animals had died while waiting to be retired to Chimp Haven
Animal welfare groups welcomed the decision. But some research advocates questioned the announcement, saying if a new pathogen emerges, chimps might be needed for research.
Chimps were once vital in creating important medicines. But their use has become rare in recent decades. In 2011, the Institute of Medicine said science had advanced enough that most research using chimps is no longer justified. Some private labs also use chimps for non-invasive behavioral research.
The NIH's decision does not extend to other types of primates. "We still feel that research on other non-human primates is essential for human health," Dr. Collins said.
You can read the NIH's statement here.
