To see the names and ages of chimpanzees held in labs today, view each lab profile and click on the WHO’S THERE? chart on each lab page.
Chimpanzees were used in biomedical and behavioral research in the United States beginning in 1930. In November 2015 the FDA announced that it would no longer support biomedical research on chimpanzees, but as of 2017, there are still roughly 577 chimpanzees housed in U.S. laboratories, not yet having been sent to sanctuary.
This section does not address any other types of facilities housing captive chimpanzees (i.e., entertainment, pets, zoos), nor can it account for all of the chimpanzees in private labs, since those facilities are not required to divulge such information. Whenever new information is available, Project R&R will edit/augment these summaries. If you have additional information on any of these laboratories, please contact us. To learn more about the difficulty of obtaining information on chimpanzees kept in laboratories and the conditions in which they live and are used, see Uncovering the Truth.
Ended Chimpanzee Use
Chimpanzees rescued from research and breeding facilities who now reside in sanctuaries are, through the voices of those who care for them, telling us their stories—stories that turn the public and policy makers’ attention on the roughly 1,000 chimpanzees remaining in U.S. labs.
Closed Laboratories
Dismantling any industry embedded in profit, status, and power is never easy. It happens one step at a time even if that industry is technologically outdated and ethically questionable. Animal research in the U.S. is such an industry. The closure of the U.S. laboratories listed below, particularly the LEMSIP and Coulston labs that housed hundreds of chimpanzees, are milestones on route to the eventual end in the use of all animals in all labs. In addition to these labs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reportedly closed their facility and transferred their chimpanzees to the New Iberia Research Center in 2009. That same year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also reported there were “no programs in the…FDA that use or house chimpanzees…” The current location of their chimpanzees however is unknown.
Federal Agencies
The CDC, FDA, and NIH are all government agencies under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The HHS “is the United States government’s principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services…” The agencies under HHS “perform a wide variety of tasks and services, including research, public health, food and drug safety, grants and other funding, health insurance, and many others.”