After years of go in a research laboratory , hundreds of chimpanzees are being moved to drop the rest of their life in a sanctuary .
Starting this June , 220 Pan troglodytes from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette ’s ( ULL)New Iberia Research Center(NIRC ) will start the move in their established social group to a 135 - hectare ( 236 acre ) sanctuary in Blue Ridge , Georgia . The process , which is anticipate to go on for “ several years , ” is a collaborative effort between the university and a nonprofit organisation calledProject Chimps .
“ We ’re make account here , ” said Sarah Baeckler Davis , the founder of Project Chimps . “ We ’re thrilled to partner with NIRC on this retirement of so many Pan troglodytes . It ’s an unprecedented quislingism and a momentous occasion for chimpanzee . ”
The scientific residential district in the U.S. look to have undergo a work shift recently on their views on using non - human primates in biomedical subject area . Late last twelvemonth , the United States National Institutes of Health announcedit was keep out downall of its chimpanzee medical inquiry program .
allot to theAssociated Press , the University of Louisiana say " the vast absolute majority " of chimpanzees at the facility were never involved in any inquiry and had everyday access to the external world .
However , many feel there is still much more to do . TheNIRCis a 45,000 - square - meter ( 485,000 square metrical foot ) deftness , consecrate to caparison and testing primates . This includes many species of macaque and cercopithecine monkeys , of which there are no known plans to retire . The adeptness still houseswell over 5,000non - human archpriest , which dish as test subjects for preclinical trials of pharmaceuticals and bioengineering products .
" It is high time that the 220 chimps at the University of Louisiana are retired , and it is a positively charged stone’s throw that ULL is shoulder at least part of the financial burden for these order Primates , " Michael Budkie , executive director of Stop Animal Exploitation Now , said harmonise toAssociated Press . " But what about … the other 5,000 high priest at ULL ? "
