Nearly two dozen government-owned chimpanzees, which have been living in an isolated desert facility since being retired from research, will be transferred to a sanctuary in Louisiana, officials from the National Institutes of Health said in an interview on Thursday.
For years, chimpanzee experts and some American lawmakers have urged the agency to relocate the chimps, which reside at the Alamogordo Primate Facility in New Mexico. In 2021, several animal welfare groups sued the N.I.H., arguing that it had violated federal law by refusing to move the animals.
The N.I.H. had previously concluded that the chimps were too sick or frail to be moved. The agency’s assessment of the chimps’ health has not changed, and relocating the animals is a risk, officials said.
But the agency has become concerned that it might soon face a staffing shortage at the remote New Mexico facility, making it impossible to secure the chimps’ long-term future.
“We didn’t come to this decision lightly,” said Tara Schwetz, the deputy director for program coordination, planning and strategic initiatives at the N.I.H. “If we felt more confident that we could guarantee their continuity of care, I don’t believe we would be making this decision.”
As of Oct. 1, 23 chimpanzees, ages 34 to 62, remained at Alamogordo. They will be moved to a facility in Louisiana called Chimp Haven, which sits on 200 forested acres and serves as the national chimpanzee sanctuary.
“It brings tears to my eyes to think that they’re going to be given the opportunity to live in sanctuary,” said Kathleen Conlee, vice president of animal research issues at the Humane Society of the United States, which was one of the groups that sued the N.I.H. over the fate of the Alamogordo chimps. “We applaud N.I.H. for whatever reason brought them to this decision and look forward to seeing the day the chimps arrive at Chimp Haven.”
The Chimpanzee Health Improvement Maintenance Protection Act, enacted in 2000, requires that federally owned chimpanzees that are no longer needed for research be relocated to a sanctuary.
In 2015, the N.I.H. announced that it would no longer support biomedical research on chimps. Since then, it has moved more than 200 chimpanzees, including many from Alamogordo, to Chimp Haven.
But in 2019 the agency announced that the animals that remained in New Mexico had all been classified as suffering from “life-threatening, systemic disease” and were not healthy enough to be moved.
The chimps suffer from a range of conditions, but many have severe cardiovascular disease and some have diabetes, officials said.
“Stress, of course, exacerbates those conditions,” said Dr. Franziska Grieder, a veterinarian who directs the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs at the N.I.H. “Stress brought on by loading them on a transport vehicle, being in transport, loading them off, being introduced to new caretakers or being introduced into new social groups.”
Some experts have disputed the characterization of the chimps as too sick to move, noting that many aging chimps with chronic conditions have been transported safely to Chimp Haven.
On Thursday, the N.I.H. said that it decided to relocate the remaining Alamogordo chimps after learning that many people on the animals’ care team had planned to retire by next summer. The facility’s remote location, and the specialized skill-set required, makes recruitment difficult, the agency said.
“I think it just raises a lot of questions about what the future of their care would be like at that facility,” Dr. Schwetz said.
Animal Protection New Mexico, which was among the organizations that sued the N.I.H. and has been pushing for the chimps’ relocation, praised the decision. “These deserving chimpanzees have endured so much for so long, and their arrival in sanctuary will represent the completion of the federal government’s obligation and commitment to their retirement,” Elisabeth Jennings, the organization’s executive director, said in an emailed statement.
The relocation process is complicated, and transferring the animals will take time. “We’ve got a lot of planning to do,” said Rana Smith, the president of Chimp Haven. “We really don’t know what kind of shape these animals are in.”
Chimp Haven will work with the N.I.H. and the caregivers at Alamogordo to review the animals’ medical and behavioral records and draw up more detailed relocation plans. The animals will need to be transported by truck, in compatible social groups, and then quarantined at Chimp Haven before being eased into new chimpanzee families.
Ms. Smith said that Chimp Haven would be ready to begin accepting the first chimps early next year but will need to build an addition to make room for all of the animals — an undertaking the sanctuary is committed to.
“We are thrilled,” Ms. Smith said. “We firmly believe that Chimp Haven is the best place for retired chimps to live out their lives in the most natural setting available.”
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