The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is refusing sanctuary care for 26 government-owned chimpanzees who have been languishing at the Alamogordo Primate Facility (APF) in New Mexico for decades, despite the fact that the law requires the agency to do so. Because the NIH has refused for years to obey the law, 18 chimps have already died at this lab while waiting to be moved to the Chimp Haven sanctuary.

This is appalling and unjust!

Please contact the NIH and demand that it move these 26 remaining chimpanzees from APF to the freedom and dignity of sanctuary at Chimp Haven.

The CHIMP Act requires government-owned chimpanzees to be retired to Chimp Haven. In December 2022, a federal court ruled that the NIH is violating this law by denying sanctuary retirement to chimpanzees in poor health.

The NIH claims that transporting the chimps could be unsafe because they suffer from chronic health conditions common in chimpanzees formerly used in research. However, the NIH seems to be willfully blind to the ways in which sanctuary living can benefit the animals. Chimp Haven cares for hundreds of chimpanzees who were once used in research, so it has the expertise to meet the special needs of these individuals. It has also seen the health of many chronically ill chimpanzees improve after arriving at the sanctuary.

After all they’ve been through, these chimpanzees deserve a chance to live out the rest of their lives in the peace and freedom of sanctuary. Please contact NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli to demand that the agency relocate the chimpanzees at APF to Chimp Haven before more lives are lost.