November 8, 2024
Animal Protection New Mexico learned this week that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) intends to transfer to sanctuary the remaining 23 chimpanzees housed at the Alamogordo Primate Facility (APF) located on Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. The NIH has indicated it will start moving the last APF chimps to the federal chimpanzee sanctuary, Chimp Haven in Keithville, LA, starting in the spring of 2025.
The decision was reported in The New York Times on Friday, November 8th.
This news comes after decades of determined advocacy for the chimpanzees by advocates in New Mexico and across the country. At one time, New Mexico was home to the largest colony of captive-bred chimpanzees in the world at the Coulston Foundation. This was a result of chimpanzees being brought to New Mexico for space travel testing, and then later being used for many years in painful invasive testing.
As of the latest census from the NIH in early October, 23 chimps remained at APF, nearly twenty-five years after the Chimpanzee, Health, Improvement, Maintenance and Protection [CHIMP] Act was signed into law, determining that all former federal research chimpanzees be moved to sanctuary.
According to an NIH representative quoted in The New York Times story, “We didn’t come to this decision lightly,” said Tara Schwetz, the deputy director for program coordination, planning and strategic initiatives at the NIH, “If we felt more confident that we could guarantee their continuity of care, I don’t believe we would be making this decision.”
In 2015, the NIH announced that it would no longer support biomedical research on chimps. Since then, it has moved more than 200 chimpanzees to Chimp Haven.
In 2019 the agency announced that the animals that remained at APF had all been classified as suffering from “life-threatening, systemic disease” and were not healthy enough to be moved.
In 2021, APNM joined plaintiffs, including the Humane Society of the United States, in a suit against the NIH for violating the CHIMP Act, which a federal judge upheld.
“These deserving chimpanzees have endured so much for so long, and their arrival in sanctuary will represent the federal government’s honoring of its obligation and commitment to their retirement,” said Elisabeth Jennings, Executive Director of Animal Protection New Mexico, which has pressed for the chimpanzees’ freedom since the mid-1990s.
Gene Grant, Chief Program and Policy Officer for Animals in Science at APNM added, “Relentless efforts by New Mexico’s current and former Congressional delegation have been essential in bringing about this result. Every member has used their power and influence to ensure these chimpanzees can live their best chimp lives in true sanctuary at Chimp Haven.”
Tireless chimp advocates include Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, former Senator Tom Udall, former Senator Jeff Bingaman, the late Governor Bill Richardson, former NM Attorney General Patricia Madrid, former Land Commissioner Ray Powell, Jr., former Mayor Marty Chavez, former commander of the 479th tactical training wing at Holloman Air Force Base, General Brad Hosmer, and the late state Senator Mary Jane Garcia.
APNM will continue to support NIH’s timely and successful transfer of the APF chimps to Chimp Haven and welcomes this opportunity to revise New Mexico’s historical legacy that has involved these deserving chimpanzees.
