ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The National Institutes of Health decided to relocate nearly two dozen retired research chimpanzees from a facility in New Mexico to a sanctuary in Louisiana, a move celebrated Friday by animal advocates who have been fighting for years to get the animals moved.
NIH representatives confirmed in an email that the transfer of the 23 chimps from the Alamogordo Primate Facility at Holloman Air Force Base in southern New Mexico will happen in coming months.
Staffing issues, namely the planned retirement of the chimps’ caretakers, prompted the decision to move the chimps, the agency stated. The animals have not been used as test subjects since 2015, when the NIH retired chimpanzees — humans’ closest relatives — from invasive research.
Research Chimps New Mexico
A retired research chimpanzee eats in October 2019 at the Alamogordo Primate Facility in southern N.M.
More than 200 previously were moved to the federally supported sanctuary, but the NIH said it decided in 2019 that some were too frail to be relocated due to their health conditions. They remained at the base under the care of contracted veterinarians and caregivers.