Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
You don’t have to be an animal lover to appreciate why a recent federal court order involving the future of more than 30 chimpanzees at an Alamogordo research facility is a big deal.
The case is as much about the rule of law, reining in a rogue federal agency, and wise use of tax dollars as it is about the moral aspects of denying mankind’s closest living relatives the space and freedom they deserve to live out their lives the way nature intended.
The ruling paves the way for the National Institutes of Health to relocate the chimps to a sanctuary in Louisiana.
How did we get to this impasse requiring a federal judge’s ruling? In 2000 Congress decided chimps retired from research should go to a sanctuary. In 2015, the NIH stopped supporting biomedical research using chimpanzees, then started relocating many of the research subjects to Chimp Haven, the federal sanctuary in Keithville, La.
But some of the chimps at the NIH’s three primate facilities — including the Alamogordo Primate Facility at Holloman Air Force Base — were deemed by the NIH to be too sick or frail to make the move.
Ironically, some of the chimps had to be euthanized, begging the question why they weren’t moved, in accordance with the law, to spend their remaining days in a better place. Many of the frail chimps are considered geriatric with conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and amputations.
This month, U.S. District Judge Lydia Griggsby ruled in favor of the Humane Society of the United States, among other plaintiffs, in a lawsuit arguing that all chimps housed at the Alamogordo Primate Facility should be retired and moved to the 200-acre Chimp Haven sanctuary. The court’s ruling determined the CHIMP (Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance and Protection) Act of 2000 is unambiguous in its intent. It doesn’t give the NIH the discretion to determine which chimps are eligible for relocation.
“The CHIMP Act means exactly what it says — these chimps can’t be denied the sanctuary retirement that they deserve,” Humane Society staff attorney Margie Robinson told the Journal. The plaintiffs have a Jan. 13 deadline to file a report to the court on the specific relief they are seeking, though it’s clear they plan to ask the judge to order a transfer of the APF chimps to the sanctuary.
“NIH should immediately initiate plans for transferring chimps,” Robinson told the Journal.
Chimp Haven is a $20 million forested sanctuary where retired chimps “experience the joys they would have enjoyed in the wild: climbing trees, living in large, bonded social groups, eating their favorite fruits, running, playing, exploring, and — best of all — choosing how they spend their days,” according to its website.
Taxpayers foot the bill for care of NIH-owned chimpanzees, whether at the NIH primate facilities or Chimp Haven. Chimp Haven receives partial government funding to care for the NIH-owned chimpanzees, but zero government funding to build new habitats to accommodate more chimpanzees awaiting retirement.
Last year, it cost $130 a day to house one chimp in Alamogordo where there are no trees or wide open spaces compared with $35.65 a day at Chimp Haven.
The cost of medical care for geriatric chimps is likely the biggest reason for the difference, but taxpayers would likely want their money going to the place where chimps have a higher quality of life. Under the current arrangement, taxpayers are not getting bang for their buck, and sentient beings are suffering for it.
— Albuquerque Journal