The National Institutes of Health no longer will use chimpanzees for biomedical research.
NIH Director Francis Collins said the the agency will retire its 50 remaining chimpanzees and send them to sanctuaries to live out the rest of their lives.
Collins said he has “reassessed the need to maintain chimpanzees for biomedical research and decided that effective immediately, NIH will no longer maintain a colony of 50 chimpanzees for future research.”
In 2013, NIH decided to reduce the number of chimpanzees in its research program from more than 300 to 50, in response to study from the Institute of Medicine that found that “while the chimpanzee has been a valuable animal model in past research, most current use of chimpanzees for biomedical research is unnecessary.” NIH said it would abide by the strict recommendations made by the committee behind the report for ongoing chimpanzee research.
Earlier in 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated captive chimpanzees as endangered, requiring researchers to obtain a permit to use them.
“As a result of these numerous changes over the last few years and the significantly reduced demand for chimpanzees in NIH-supported biomedical research, it is clear that we’ve reached a tipping point,” Collins said, and indicated that he was not aware of any permits being sought for chimpanzee research within his agency.
Animal rights groups, which have long lobbied against chimpanzee research, applauded NIH’s decision.
While PETA celebrated what it called a “historic victory for chimpanzees,” the group said that it plans to fight for the release of several hundred chimpanzees still being used in private laboratories.
Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, said: “It’s rare to close out a category of animal use so emphatically. That’s exactly what’s happening here, and it’s thrilling.”
