Photo: © Michael Nichols. From Brutal Kinship (Aperture)

In 1997, the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR) published a report regarding a formal admission by the NIH of a chimpanzee “surplus.”

Entitled “Chimpanzees in Research: Strategies for their Ethical Care, Management and Use,” (1) the report concluded that there is a “moral responsibility” for the long-term care of chimpanzees used in scientific research. The findings acknowledged the widespread public and government support for the creation of a “sanctuary” system.

The ILAR report became the basis for the Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance, and Protection Act (CHIMP Act) (2), which was signed into law by President Clinton on December 20, 2000. The law created a federally supported system to “provide for the life-time care of chimpanzees that [sic] have been used, or were bred or purchased for use in research conducted or supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, or other agencies of the Federal Government…” (3)

Historic Advances

The CHIMP Act made several important advances:

• The Act requires that the government take responsibility for at least the partial cost of lifetime care for a former research subject outside of the laboratory setting. The Act provides for 90% and 75% federal funding, respectively, to establish and maintain “retirement” facilities.
• The CHIMP Act prohibits routine euthanasia. No chimpanzee can be killed simply because: they are no longer of “use,” the facility is overpopulated, or they are too costly to maintain. Euthanasia as a humane option during an intractable illness is permitted.
• The 2007 passage of the “Chimp Haven is Home Act” (an amendment to the 2000 CHIMP Act) now legally prohibits the removal of any chimpanzees retired into the sanctuary system to be used in research again - a protection chimpanzees rescued into privately funded sanctuaries have always had. Prior to this amendment, the CHIMP Act was seriously flawed in that chimpanzees in the federal sanctuary system could be called back into research. Chimpanzees who are finally voluntarily “retired” by research facilities have been deemed of “no use” to the laboratories and most, if not all, would likely have never been deemed suitable to return to research. Nevertheless, the passage of this amendment guaranteeing them permanent sanctuary reinforces a moral commitment to chimpanzees by the U.S. government – even if flawed by ambivalence in allowing their continued use in the face of other significant progress in ending such research.

The existence of the CHIMP Act itself constitutes a vital and precedent-setting admission that chimpanzees have an ethical status not previously granted to any species other than humans. It is an important first step in calling for the end of research on all chimpanzees.