Victory! Alamogordo Chimps to be Moved to Sanctuary
In a monumental breakthrough for justice and the rule of law, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced that the 23 remaining Alamogordo chimpanzees will finally be sent to Chimp Haven, the sanctuary they deserve to call home!
This victory has been a long time coming for these former research chimps, who have been illegally held at the Alamogordo Primate Facility, where they were once used as test subjects, for nearly a decade. Despite invasive testing on chimps ending in 2015, the NIH has resisted transferring them, as required by the Chimpanzee Health, Improvement, Maintenance, and Protection (CHIMP) Act. Even after a 2022 federal court ruling declared the NIH in violation of the law, they failed to act until now.
The NIH’s recent decision to transfer the chimps reportedly stems from unexpected staffing challenges that raised concerns about its ability to provide proper care. However, Gene Grant of Animal Protection New Mexico, a longtime advocate for these chimps, noted that pressure from their congressional delegation and awareness efforts by groups like Species Unite likely played a key role in achieving this long-overdue victory for these survivors of animal testing.
Chimp Haven is preparing to welcome the Alamogordo chimps by building additional facilities, with the first group expected to arrive early next year.
The Species Unite community came together to send nearly 13,000 letters to the National Institutes of Health and to NIH Director Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, urging them to do the right thing. We are deeply moved to see our collective call for justice answered.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to speak out for these chimps and helped make this victory possible. Because of your compassion, 23 senior chimps will finally experience freedom and safety for the first time.
What You Fought Against
The fate of 23 chimpanzees, victims of cruel biomedical research, had hung in the balance for years as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) refused to send them to a sanctuary as required by law.
The United States has a dark history of horrific experiments on chimpanzees, our closest living relatives. These social animals suffered for decades in medical research until the Chimpanzee Health, Improvement, Maintenance, and Protection (CHIMP) Act was passed in 2000, leading to the creation of Chimp Haven, a federal sanctuary in Louisiana.
In 2015, the U.S. ended invasive chimpanzee research, but the NIH still held 300 chimps in labs, pledging to retire them to Chimp Haven Sanctuary.
However, nearly a decade later, 23 chimps remain at the Alamogordo, New Mexico facility, waiting for their rightful transfer.
These chimps are confined in the same facility where they suffered traumatic biomedical experiments. They have no access to plant life or a natural environment and are kept either in solitary confinement or small single-gendered groups, while chimpanzees naturally live in large mixed-gender social environments.
Despite the low-quality care available at this prison-like facility, the cost of keeping them there is three times the cost of care at Chimp Haven. A clear abuse of taxpayer funds.
The NIH tried to exploit a loophole in the CHIMP Act, claiming near-death exemptions to keep these chimps and continue receiving taxpayer money for their care. A 2022 federal ruling found this illegal, and in March 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld this decision, mandating the chimps' transfer.
Despite this, for months the NIH refused to do the right thing. Until now. These chimps will now, finally, get to live out their days in peace at Chimp Haven.