Sanctuaries/facilities housing chimpanzees in the United States, Canada, and the E.U. (excluding zoos and laboratories)

Sanctuaries that receive funding from Project R&R/NEAVS are indicated by an asterisk (*).

Fauna Foundation* (www.faunafoundation.org)

The Fauna Foundation was established as a non-profit organization in 1997, but originated as a farmed animal sanctuary years earlier by Gloria Grow and her partner Richard Allan, DVM. After rescuing hundreds of domestic, farmed, and exotic animals, Grow responded to a plea to take in 15 chimpanzees from biomedical research, many of whom were HIV positive, from the now closed Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) in New York.

Life for Fauna’s chimpanzees has dramatically and continually improved since their arrival. The sanctuary is committed to ever expanding the chimpanzees’ facilities and enrichment of their daily lives. Recent projects have included creating an overhead “skyway” tunnel system through which they can explore much of the property, and building lush islands that permit life without bars. At Fauna, the chimpanzees make choices, often for the first time in their lives – choices about where they will go, what they will eat, and whom they will befriend.

In recent years, Fauna was devastated by the deaths of Jeannie (2007), Billy Jo (2006), Pablo (2001) and Annie (2002) and Donna Rae (2005). Their sudden and untimely deaths were surrounded by complications and compromises in their health from decades of research. The loss of these four special chimpanzee people has made Gloria Grow an even stronger advocate to help Project R&R get all the rest out. She knows first hand how little time is left for so many.

Save the Chimps* (www.savethechimps.org)

Save the Chimps (originally known as the Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care) was founded in 1997 after biological anthropologist Carole Noon, PhD, successfully sued the United States Air Force for custody of several of its “surplus” chimpanzees, some of whom had been originally captured in Africa and used for air and space research. After a year-long legal battle, Dr. Noon was given custody of 21 chimpanzees and established her sanctuary in Fort Pierce, Florida.

In 2002, Dr. Noon rescued 266 more chimpanzees from the notorious Coulston Foundation, a private New Mexico biomedical research lab with a horrific history of animal welfare violations. Save the Chimps took control of the laboratory facility and has steadily improved the lives of the chimpanzees while they await construction of their permanent home in Florida.

Save the Chimps is currently fast at work, building island homes, where the former New Mexico chimpanzees will join the former Air Force chimpanzees and others, and live in groups in protected open spaces. For chimpanzees bred in captivity, this will be their first taste of life without bars. And for those captured in Africa where they roamed free with their mothers, it will be the first time to see their world without bars since then.

Center for Great Apes* (Center for Orangutan and Chimpanzee Conservation)
(www.prime-apes.org)

This beautiful sanctuary is home to 37 great apes, including Butch and Chipper, and Mari, an orangutan, all former laboratory subjects. The Florida sanctuary sits on 100 lush acres resembling tropical forests. The apes all live in species-specific social groups in large outdoor enclosures where they spend much of their time. This sanctuary is distinctive for its extensive overhead tunnel system, which allows the chimpanzees and orangutans to travel at will through the grounds. During the two hurricanes that hit Florida in 2004, the Center lost nearly 50% of its trees, which provided much-needed shade for residents. Extensive replanting began immediately. Director Patti Ragan is committed to helping all great apes including those from research, though the majority of her residents are from the entertainment industry. The Center is currently home to 27 chimpanzees and 10 orangutans.

Primate Rescue Center* (www.primaterescue.org)

The Primate Rescue Center (PRC) began as a home for rescued monkeys in the 1980s, and expanded to become a home for chimpanzees in 1997.

When the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) began releasing some of their chimpanzees to sanctuary to avoid their transfer to the dreaded Coulston Foundation, director April Truitt took seven juveniles – ranging in age from one and a half to six years old (Ike, the oldest boy of the group, had spent the most time with his mother – a mere year and a half - before he was taken to the LEMSIP nursery where humans raised young chimpanzees to prepare them for active research protocols). The babies are now young adults and have been joined at the PRC by four adult chimpanzees who were privately “owned” before their rescue. The sanctuary is currently expanding the chimpanzees’ living quarters.

Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI)
(www.cwu.edu/~cwuchci)

CHCI’s family of four chimpanzees – Washoe, Tatu, Loulis and Dar (a fifth, Moja, died in 2003) – enjoys space, attention, and an exceptional standard of care. The chimpanzees are all proficient in American Sign Language (ASL). CHCI follows the basic tenets of dedication to the chimpanzees: no breeding, no transfer to other facilities, and a lifetime commitment to their residents’ care and well-being. The institution’s main focus is on enrichment for the chimpanzees, and its policy is that non-invasive observational studies come second to the needs of the primates.

Deborah and Roger Fouts and their staff are staunch defenders of chimpanzees. They argue strenuously against the captivity of chimpanzees and are committed to ending the use of chimpanzees in all forms of entertainment and research. Experts in the area of chimpanzee and human communication, the Foutses educate audiences about the harm done to chimpanzees in all areas of research, including cognitive, language, and other behavioral studies.

Chimps, Inc. (http://www.chimps-inc.org/)

Chimps, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering chimpanzee conservation through education. The sanctuary is now home to six chimpanzees, veterans of research labs, parks/zoos, and entertainment. Topo, a 200-pound alpha male, was the first chimpanzee to arrive at the Oregon-based facility in October of 1995.

Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
(www.chimpsanctuarynw.org)

Founded in 2003, Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest is located on a 26-acre farm in Central Washington, between Cle Elum and Ellensburg, approximately 100 miles east of Seattle. The sanctuary will welcome its first seven residents this coming spring when Annie, Burrito, Foxy, Jamie, Jody, Missy and Negra are released from the Buckshire Corporation laboratory in Pennsylvania.

The Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch
(www.fundforanimals.org/ranch/)

Founded in 1979 by the late author, animal advocate, founder of the Fund for Animals, and former NEAVS President Cleveland Amory, Black Beauty Ranch provides nearly 1,300 acres as home to more than 1,200 animals. The residents have been rescued from biomedical research laboratories, slaughterhouses, trophy hunting ranches, circuses, roadside zoos, the exotic pet trade, and from public lands where they were threatened with extermination by the federal government.

The Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch currently provides a permanent, safe home for three chimpanzees – Lulu, Midge, and Kitty. It was also home to their companion Nim who, like Washoe at CHCI, learned American Sign Language.

Nim was an extraordinary chimpanzee who was raised as a member of a human family until he was approximately two years old. He was part of a cross-fostering/language acquisition study in which he learned to communicate using American Sign Language. Language acquisition research in great apes is considered by many scientists to have been a dead end. Consequently, as grant money for sign language research dried up, Nim - like many of the language study-apes including Booee, Ally, Bruno, and others - was destined for a cage in a biomedical research lab. He was to be used in hepatitis research at NYU. Appalled when he learned about Nim’s unjust fate, Cleveland Amory offered Black Beauty Ranch as a more fitting lifetime home. Fortunately for Nim, he was rescued from a fate in intrusive biomedical research. He lived at Black Beauty Ranch for the rest of his life until his passing in 2000. He was 26 years old when he died. Currently, Black Beauty Ranch is home to three other chimpanzees: Kitty, rescued from the Coulston Foundation; and Lulu and Midge, both rescued from LEMSIP.

Chimp Haven (www.chimphaven.org)

Chimp Haven is the first and, so far, only facility awarded a contract under the Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance, and Protection Act (CHIMP Act). In 2000, the CHIMP Act was signed into law, creating a system for the retirement of “surplus,” government-owned chimpanzees no longer needed for research. Formerly, to be eligible for government funding, a facility had to agree to certain conditions, including the return of chimpanzees to research if deemed necessary by the head of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). However, in December of 2007, the CHIMP Act was finally amended with the passage of the “Chimp Haven is Home” Act. This critical amendment now secures the permanent placement of all chimpanzees “retired” to facilities that accept federal funding. (Read more about the CHIMP Act and Project R&R efforts to secure the 2007 amendment.)

Chimp Haven promises to provide a comfortable life for the chimpanzees sent there now, with assured permanent protection from any future research. Chimp Haven received 90% of the costs to establish the facility from the NIH and the remaining 10% from private donations. It will continue to receive 75% of its operating costs from NIH with the remaining 25% raised from private donations. The facility currently has 122 chimpanzees. It is planned to accommodate up to 200.

The Board of Directors for Chimp Haven includes primate researchers and veterinarians. Their current chairman, Thomas Butler, DVM, MS, is a nonhuman primate veterinarian. Dr. Butler was formally the head of the Department of Laboratory Animal Medicine at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio. Dr. Butler also worked with the U.S. Air Force in its chimpanzee research at Holloman Air Force Base.

Wild Animal Orphanage (www.wildanimalorphanage.org)

A division of The Animal Sanctuary of the United States, Wild Animal Orphanage is home to HIV-infected chimpanzees released to the sanctuary from the now-defunct Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP). The facility states that it uses Biosafety Level 2 procedures. The chimpanzees live in indoor-outdoor enclosures in social groups. The sanctuary’s philosophy opposes the use of nonhuman primates in biomedical research, promises a permanent home to all residents, and opposes breeding.

Primarily Primates, Inc. (PPI)

Primarily Primates, Inc. is home to some 75 chimpanzees, many of whom were released from research laboratories.

Wildlife Waystation (www.wildlifewaystation.org)

The Wildlife Waystation, incorporated in 1977 and located on 160 acres north of the San Fernando Valley in California, is home to some 50 chimpanzees – including many retired from the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP). Chimpanzees are housed in indoor and outdoor enclosures in small social groups.

AAP Primadomus (www.primadomus.org)

Located in Almere, The Netherlands, the AAP is a European sanctuary that provides professional care, rehabilitation, and housing for exotic animals. For over thirty years, this non-profit organization has served as a safe haven for animals who came from illegal trade, research laboratories, circuses, illegal zoos, or from private people as exotic pets.

In 2005, AAP built a Chimpanzee Complex in Almere to provide permanent shelter and re-socialization habitat for chimpanzees from laboratories. In September 2006, 28 chimpanzees infected with HIVand Hepatitis C were transferred from the Biomedical Primate Research Center (BPRC) in Rijswijk, The Netherlands to the AAP sanctuary in Almere. This occurred as part of an agreement with the Dutch government, who in 2002 banned the use of great apes in biomedical research. The Government also agreed to provide funding for both building and the lifetime care for the chimpanzees. 30 non-infected chimpanzees from BPRC were transferred to Beekse Bergen, which is a wildlife park in The Netherlands.

In order for AAP to accommodate the increasing number of non-human primates they receive who require permanent housing- particularly chimpanzees, AAP created a retirement plan that includes the construction of a Life Time Care Center called Primadomus. Located on 450 acres near Alicante, Spain, this center is expected to open in Spring 2008 when it will receive its first re-socialized group of 11 healthy chimpanzees. The 28 infected chimpanzees will remain at The Netherlands AAP special care facility because of their infectious status, which does not allow them to leave The Netherlands.

Last revised: 1/10/08

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