U.S. SENATE News:WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Bill Cassidy M.D. (R-La.), and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) submitted a letter Friday to National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis S. Collins, urging the agency transfer 43 chimpanzees from the Alamogordo Primate Facility on Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico to the national sanctuary system at Chimp Haven in Keithville, La.
The letter follows the October decision by NIH announcing that the remaining chimpanzees at the Alamogordo facility will not be transferred to sanctuary. The lawmakers view the decision as a violation of the Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance, and Protection Act (CHIMP Act), mandating that chimpanzees live their remaining years in a chimpanzee sanctuary.
“In addition to our general questions about the NIH’s rationale for retaining these chimpanzees that are no longer needed for biomedical research (i.e. “surplus), we are concerned that the NIH’s decision may be contrary to Congress’s intent in passing the Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance, and Protection Act (CHIMP Act),” the senators wrote.
“The chimpanzees at the Alamogordo Primate Facility are undoubtedly surplus, having lived at the facility for well over a decade without being subjected to any further research,” the senators continued. “Since at least 2015 NIH has acknowledged that these chimpanzees are no longer necessary for research, triggering the NIH’s obligation to retire them. With 43 chimpanzees that are deemed surplus, the NIH now has a legal duty under the CHIMP Act to fulfill its commitment to relocate these chimpanzees to the national sanctuary system. There, these chimpanzees may live out the remainder of their lives under the supervision of caretakers with expertise in maximizing their psychological and physical wellbeing—precisely as Congress envisioned.”
The senators then requested the NIH to provide answers to six questions regarding:
- The facility’s ability to meet the complex physical and psychological needs of the 43 chimpanzees remaining in its care;
- The number of remaining staff caring for the animals and their job titles;
- Whether or not the chimpanzees have daily access to material to build nests;
- Why the chimpanzees in Alamogordo are held in groups smaller than what was determined to be appropriate under a previous NIH Working Group;
- A description of the NIH’s obligation and plan to provide the best possible quality of life for these surviving chimpanzees; and
- A description of any and all instances in which a chimpanzee has died or has been injured during transport.
“We appreciate continuing to work with you on this matter and appreciate your responsiveness but want to make abundantly clear our displeasure with the NIH’s decision to not send these chimpanzees to sanctuary,” the senators concluded. “We disagree on the NIH’s interpretation of Congressional action and state unambiguously that these chimpanzees need to be transferred to Chimp Haven before the end of the year.”
The full text of the senator’s letter can be found HERE.