The National Institutes of Health (NIH) says it plans to considerably reduce the use of chimps in NIH-funded biomedical research, and to retire the majority of chimps it currently supports or owns.



NIH says it will not breed any more chimpanzees









  • Keep “a small fraction” of chimpanzees for future research that meets the principles and criteria laid down by the IoM

  • Not breed chimpanzees

  • “Provide ethologically appropriate facilities (i.e., as would occur in their natural environment) for those chimpanzees as defined by NIH based on the advisory council recommendations and with space requirements yet to be determined”

  • Set up a review panel whose job will be to consider research project applications that plan to use chimpanzees (adhering to the IoM principles and criteria) after they have cleared the NIH peer review process

  • Close down research that does not meet the IoM principles and criteria that utilizes chimpanzees either owned or supported by NIH. This must be done in a way that minimizes the impact on the chimpanzees and preserves the research

  • Retire most of the NIH-owned chimps to the Federal Sanctuary system “contingent upon resources and space availability in the sanctuary system.”
There is currently a legal limit on the amount of money NIH is allowed to put towards retiring chimpanzees





This video by The Humane Society of the United States shows how chimps react when they are moved from the laboratory into a sanctuary.