More than 1,000 chimpanzees—some who were captured from the wild, used by the entertainment industry or kept as pets—currently live in nine biomedical research and testing laboratories across the United States.
Despite extensive knowledge of their rich social and emotional lives, and their ineffectiveness as models for human diseases like HIV, chimpanzees continue to be subjected to painful and invasive experiments—some for over 40 years now. Most chimpanzees aren't being used and end up languishing in laboratories for decades, wasting taxpayer dollars. It's time to finally end this wasteful and poor treatment of our closest living and endangered relatives.
What is the history of chimpanzee research in the United States?
Chimpanzee research in the United States began in the 1920s when Robert M. Yerkes purchased a chimpanzee and a bonobo for his home-based laboratory. His research contributed to some of the first descriptions of chimpanzee behavior and intelligence and an understanding of their similarities to humans. Named after Robert Yerkes and located in Atlanta, Ga., Yerkes National Primate Research Center has since shifted its behavioral studies of chimpanzees to biomedical research, according to a 1995 analysis by the Committee on Animal Models in Biomedical Research.
In the 1950s, the U.S. Air Force established a chimpanzee breeding colony from wild-caught chimpanzees for research to determine the effects of space travel on humans, which included subjecting the chimps to extreme G forces and electric shocks as punishment during training.
By the 1970s, the Air Force no longer used chimpanzees, but would lease them out to facilities for biomedical research. Around this time, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora was adopted. CITES put severe restrictions on importing chimpanzees from the wild. As a result, a federally funded captive breeding program was established so that chimpanzees would be available to research.
Why should we give special attention to chimpanzees?
What we know about these animals should serve as a wake-up call. They exhibit a range of emotions including pleasure, depression, anxiety, pain, distress, empathy and grief. Chimpanzees are very social, highly intelligent, and proficient in tool use, problem solving, and numerical skills and can even be taught American Sign Language. Due to the overwhelming evidence of their intelligence and ability to experience emotions so similar to humans, their suffering under laboratory conditions cannot be refuted.
What is causing the recent decline in the use of chimpanzees for biomedical research and testing?
Fortunately, the scientific community and others have decreased the use of chimpanzees both nationally and internationally due to:
- High costs of keeping chimpanzees in laboratories
- Serious ethical concerns
- Unsuitability of chimpanzees as research models for humans
- Public pressure
What is life like for chimpanzees in the laboratory?
In the wild, chimpanzees live in very diverse social groups and travel several miles in one day. However, in some research protocols, chimpanzees are forced to live alone in cold, metal cages approximately the size of a closet.
Individual housing of chimpanzees can cause severe problems such as depression, heightened aggression, frustration and even self-mutilation. In addition to solitary housing, chimpanzees used in research are often subjected to many painful and distressing procedures including numerous liver biopsies, isolation from others for long spans of time, injection of human viruses, and frequent "knockdowns" in which chimpanzees are shot with a dart gun of anesthetic.
The majority of chimpanzees in laboratories at any given time, however, are not being used and are simply being warehoused, often at taxpayers' expense. Being in the laboratory, even when not being used, can cause the chimpanzees anxiety and fear due to seeing other chimpanzees undergo procedures and not knowing what may happen to them next.
Which laboratories have chimpanzees available for and used in invasive research?
There are currently nine laboratories in the United States which use or house chimpanzees for invasive research purposes. Those labs are:
- Alamogordo Primate Facility (Alamogordo, NM)
- Bioqual, Inc (Rockville, MD)
- Center for Disease Control (Atlanta, GA)
- Food & Drug Administration (Rockville, MD)
- MD Anderson Cancer Center (Bastrop, TX)
- New Iberia Research Center (New Iberia, LA)
- Primate Foundation of Arizona (Mesa, AZ)
- Southwest National Primate Research Center (San Antonio, TX)
- Yerkes National Primate Research Center (Atlanta, GA)
Who pays for research on chimpanzees?
U.S. taxpayers spend an estimated $20-$25 million each year on experiments involving chimpanzees and on their care. The estimated expense of simply maintaining one chimpanzee in a laboratory is $20–$39 per day. This high cost works to the chimpanzees' advantage, as it is one reason their use has been declining. The government will save an estimated total of $15 million per year if invasive research is ended, and the 600 government-owned chimpanzees are retired to sanctuary.
Is the public supportive of an end to invasive biomedical research on chimpanzees?
Opinion polls indicate growing public concern regarding the use of chimpanzees in biomedical research. See more detailed information about public poll results.
What can I do to help?
For more information about what you can do to help chimpanzees in research laboratories, see our Chimpanzee Action Toolkit; contact the Chimps Deserve Better Campaign team at chimpsdeservebetter@humanesociety.org; or write to:
Chimps Deserve Better Campaign
The HSUS
Animal Research Issues
2100 L St., NW
Washington, DC 20037
Updated Jan. 27, 2009
