On Jan. 22, a group of experts recommended to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that more than 85 percent of all government-owned chimpanzees be permanently retired from research. This could mean that more than 300 of these intelligent, highly social animals will find their way to a sanctuary. However, there is still work to do.

While the recommendations by the Working Group on the Use of Chimpanzees in NIH-Supported Research are largely positive they include the suggestion that a colony of 50 chimpanzees should be maintained for ongoing research. Obviously, we disagree. Please take a minute to sign this petition to Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., director of NIH, to let him know you want all federally owned chimpanzees retired to sanctuary. 

Petition to the Director of the National Institutes of Health

TO: Dr. Collins

RE: Retire all NIH-owned chimpanzees to the federal sanctuary system

Dear Dr. Collins:

I am pleased that the National Institutes of Health is considering retiring more than 300 of its chimpanzees based on the recommendations of the Working Group on the Use of Chimpanzees in NIH-Supported Research. I applaud you for taking this issue seriously and establishing the Working Group one year ago. However, I am writing today to ask that all NIH-owned chimpanzees be retired to the federal sanctuary system.

While the Working Group recommended that NIH maintain a colony of 50 chimpanzees for current research, neither the science nor the ethics is supportive of such a move. The 2011 Institute of Medicine report on chimpanzee experimentation could not point to a single area of human health research for which chimpanzees are essential. Further, behavioral and comparative genomics research can be conducted in the wild or at wildlife refuges and sanctuaries, a point reiterated by the Working Group.

I hope you will get NIH out of the chimpanzee experimentation business once and for all. Thank you for your consideration of this issue.