Refuge At Last
Dear Friend,
After years of fighting alongside you, I am relieved to share that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has finally agreed to transfer the remainder of the retired chimpanzees in its custody at Holloman Air Force Base to Chimp Haven, a chimpanzee sanctuary in Louisiana.
Throughout my time in Congress, I have been proud to join you in advocating for a humane solution for these chimpanzees. Formerly subjects of biomedical research at the Alamogordo Primate Facility, these chimpanzees will now live out the rest of their lives in a non-laboratory environment at the world’s largest chimpanzee sanctuary.
Since I served in the U.S. House, I have been calling on the NIH to retire the chimpanzees housed at the Alamogordo Primate Facility and urged a permanent solution that would provide the chimpanzees with a humane living environment while saving taxpayer dollars. And in the last Congress, I introduced the Chimp Sanctuary Act, to prohibit the housing of chimpanzees at U.S. Air Force installations and require any chimpanzees currently housed by the Air Force to be transported to Chimp Haven within 180 days of enactment.
Like you, I believe we have a moral responsibility to prevent senseless animal cruelty. That includes providing all of the 23 chimpanzees still living at Holloman, and other retired primates housed in similar facilities across the country, with a humane living environment.
I welcome today’s news that NIH is finally moving these chimpanzees to the sanctuary. And I thank all of you for your advocacy to finally get these chimpanzees in the best possible setting for the remainder of their lives.
Sincerely,
MARTIN HEINRICH
United States Senator
