The Institute of Medicine released their report “Chimpanzees in biomedical and behavioral research:  Assessing the necessity” on December 15, 2011.  The evaluation was conducted at the request of the National Institutes of Health in response to congressional inquiry stemming from the government’s planned move of a large colony of chimpanzees back into active research.

The committee reported that recent advances in alternative research tools have made the chimpanzee largely unnecessary for research.  While the committee did not condone an outright ban on chimpanzee research, it proposed a set of restrictive criteria to guide current and future research use.

Chimp Haven appreciates the efforts of the Institute of Medicine committee and commends the National Institutes of Health for accepting the recommendations.  As reported today by Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, no chimpanzees will be enrolled in new research studies until a review process is implemented based on the recommended criteria.  An evaluation of the 612 chimpanzees owned by the government will also be conducted to determine their placement.

Chimp Haven believes research chimpanzees deserve to be retired to a professionally run sanctuary that was built specifically to provide for the lifetime care and welfare of an aging and chronically ill population of chimpanzees.  We have demonstrated that Chimp Haven is a cost-efficient model that saves the tax payers’ money, provides a valuable service to the United States government, and provides extraordinary care to the chimpanzees.  We desire to work closely with the government to make this program available to as many retired chimpanzees as possible.

We believe the government’s next step should be to create a clear process so that the chimpanzee retirement process is based upon consistent and objective criteria and is streamlined to provide easy transitions from the labs to a sanctuary.

Based upon need and appropriate government funding, Chimp Haven is ready to develop plans for expansion of the National Sanctuary System to several sites and to accommodate up to 900 chimpanzees, as stipulated in our original government contract.