In 2011, the world got to witness a heartwarming moment. Three chimpanzees—middle-aged but newly liberated—felt the grass under their feet for the very first time. After enduring 30 years in a research facility in Austria, they were finally freed. No longer subjected to grueling experiments, these chimps could interact with each other and explore the world outside their cages.
They had been part of a larger group of 38 chimpanzees, many of whom had been captured as infants in Africa. Their mothers were slaughtered, and they were taken for use in a series of experiments aimed at developing an AIDS vaccine. The experiments were unsuccessful. Despite the enormous suffering inflicted on these chimps, the experiments failed to produce results.
The trauma experienced by the chimps was evident. Locked away in individual cages, they were deprived of the simplest pleasures: freedom, companionship, and even sunlight.
When they were finally freed into a sanctuary near Salzburg, Austria, their reaction was nothing short of extraordinary. The chimps were stunned. They started frolicking in the grass, relishing the feel of the earth beneath their feet. These were moments of hope and healing, but they also raised a question: Why had it taken so long for these intelligent and social animals to experience freedom?
A New Beginning in the U.S.
Fast forward to 2020, another group of chimpanzees was making headlines. A heartwarming video of chimps being released from a lab in Louisiana to the Project Chimps sanctuary in Georgia once again put chimps in the spotlight. Some of them had spent their entire lives in captivity and had never experienced the outdoors.
As they hesitantly stepped out into the fresh air, the awe was palpable. Some were too frightened to venture far, while others began climbing and exploring their new environment, waving to the keepers in a gesture that seemed to express curiosity and gratitude.
Project Chimps, founded in 2015, became a haven for chimps rescued from the largest privately owned chimpanzee research facility in the U.S., the New Iberia Research Center (NIRC). When invasive medical research on chimps was finally halted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2015, around 700 chimps needed new homes.
Project Chimps stepped in, purchasing a former gorilla sanctuary in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia. Since then, the organization has been instrumental in providing refuge to chimpanzees, ensuring that they live out the rest of their days in peace. Though the project has its own fair share of controversies (including an ongoing legal battle), the impact it has on former lab chimps is undeniable.
For many of these chimps, however, adjusting to freedom has been difficult. Years of isolation, invasive procedures, and stress left deep emotional scars.
Liberia’s Forgotten Chimps
While sanctuaries like Project Chimps in the U.S. provide a hopeful future for many ex-lab chimpanzees, the story of chimps in Liberia paints a more dire picture. In the 1970s, U.S.-funded research began in Liberia, using chimps to study hepatitis B. These experiments continued for decades, with the chimpanzees subjected to multiple invasive procedures.
When Liberia’s brutal civil war broke out in 1989, the research facility was left in ruins, and the chimpanzees were nearly abandoned. Only the dedication of local workers kept the animals alive as they scavenged for food during the conflict.
Eventually, the chimpanzees were relocated to river islands, where they could live out their lives without being subjected to further experiments. But in 2015, when the New York Blood Center, which had funded the research, abruptly cut ties with the chimpanzees, their future seemed bleak. Left without adequate food or care, these chimps were at risk of starvation and neglect. Global outrage ensued, with celebrities and animal rights activists campaigning for the blood center to reinstate funding.
A 2017 settlement secured the chimpanzees’ future care, with the Humane Society International stepping in to provide for their needs. Here too, the scars of their past trauma remain. Many of these chimpanzees bear physical and emotional wounds, and none will ever be able to return to the wild. Their lives are confined to these small islands, but they are no longer subjected to the cruelty of biomedical research.
A Global Movement Toward Chimpanzee Freedom
Chimpanzees have long been used in research due to their genetic proximity to humans. From the space programs of the 1960s to the HIV/AIDS research boom in the 1980s, chimps were at the forefront of scientific discovery. However, the fact that chimps are so similar to humans also marks a major moral cost. This moral cost has become harder to justify as the decades passed.
In the 1980s and 1990s, as HIV/AIDS research reached its peak, many chimpanzees were bred specifically for testing. This breeding boom created a population of chimpanzees in captivity that would soon be deemed unnecessary for research. Despite their role in important medical advancements, such as understanding hepatitis C, the use of chimps in labs was largely unsuccessful in curing human diseases like AIDS.
By the time research programs began to wind down, hundreds of chimpanzees were left in limbo, unable to return to the wild but no longer needed in labs.
In 2015, the Endangered Species Act was amended to include captive chimps, giving them the same protections as their wild counterparts. This landmark decision marked the end of invasive medical research on chimpanzees in the U.S. But for the chimps who had been used in research, retirement to sanctuaries was far from guaranteed.
Even after the NIH’s announcement to retire all government-owned chimps, private labs still held hundreds of these animals, many of which were confined in conditions similar to those they had endured during their research days. Some chimps are still awaiting to be released.
For the chimpanzees lucky enough to find their way to sanctuaries, the future is bright. With care and compassion, they can live out the rest of their lives in relative peace. Yet, the question remains: How do we balance the pursuit of scientific knowledge with the ethical treatment of animals? The chimps’ stories are a reminder of the moral cost that sometimes underlies our progress. Perhaps there is a better way.
