In a bid process announced on June 20, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) maintained its requirement that 130 monkey survivors from the agency’s now-shuttered primate lab must go to a “humane long-term sanctuary.” On June 17, before the bid process was announced, AAVS submitted an eight-page letter to the CDC that highlighted the hypocrisy of the criticism by many in the research industry of the agency’s initial decision to send the monkeys to Born Free USA, a Texas-based primate sanctuary that AAVS has repeatedly funded. AAVS focused on the fact that Born Free is accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS), an internationally recognized body that only accredits organizations that meet rigorous standards of animal care, ethics, safety, governance, and operational excellence. We also pointed out the fundamental differences between standards for sanctuaries—which prioritize the welfare of their animal residents above all else—and those of research labs, where experimentation is the focus.

Additionally, AAVS told the CDC that the loudest voice criticizing the agency’s decision regarding Born Free—the University of Washington Primate Research Center—has a singularly problematic animal welfare record, which has included four animal welfare fines since 1995; multiple primate deaths documented as recently as January 2026; and a USDA “critical” citation regarding its Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee that, according to AAVS’s review of USDA records, no other research facility in the last 12 years has earned, out of over 15,000 research inspections.

Moreover, UW’s Director of Operations has long been an opponent of sending animals from research to sanctuary, and is a former chair—and current board member—of the strident pro-animal experimentation advocacy group Americans for Medical Progress, which joined the National Primate Research Centers arguing against sending the monkeys to Born Free. We applauded the CDC’s decision to send the monkeys to an accredited sanctuary, and ended by quoting the Department of Health and Human Services: “Compassion is making a comeback.”

After the CDC announced the bid process, AAVS issued a press release reiterating our support for the agency’s requirement that it would consider only GFAS-accredited facilities that would provide “humane long-term sanctuary.” We also criticized Alpha Genesis, the for-profit primate supplier that paid a USDA fine in 2017, and in November 2024 had 22 monkeys die from apparent carbon monoxide poisoning that Science magazine called likely the “largest mass casualty event involving research primates” since 2013. Alpha Genesis told Science on June 22 that it had wanted the CDC monkeys, but only if they were placed back into use for experimentation. In a revealing quote, the company called the CDC monkeys an “invaluable domestic resource” that would be “forever lost” to experimenters if they went to sanctuary.

It’s clear that many of the research industry critics—like Alpha Genesis—would just as soon have these monkeys placed back into experimentation. As we told Science on June 22, we continue to believe that the CDC’s initial decision to send the monkeys to Born Free is justified. We also emphasized in our June 23 press release that we support sending the monkeys to any GFAS-accredited sanctuary.