It’s been a very long time coming, but the last 50 research chimps used in NIH experiments are getting out of the business. They’ll be heading to Chimp Haven, a facility located just outside of Shreveport, Louisiana.
The change comes after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated chimps in captivity as endangered earlier this year, the NIH said.
According to the NIH, the agency has ended all of its biomedical research using chimps that didn’t fall within new criteria established by the Institute of Medicine, and the organizations haven’t approved any new projects under the new guidelines.
“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,” NIH director Dr. Francis Collins said in a statement.