![]() ![]() ![]() Chimps that worked for the federal government would be supported largely at the expense of taxpayers, which led to Congress deciding to pay for a national sanctuary system with the so-called Chimp Act of 2000. Panel members realized this would require decades of support. But the National Research Council panel decided the nation’s no-longer-needed chimps should not be killed. “That has not been decided for any other animal,” says Conlee of the Humane Society. Instead, the panel ruled that retired chimps should be sent to sanctuaries. Normally, unneeded laboratory animals are euthanized. Before that, only wild chimps had been listed as endangered the USFWS made an exception for lab chimps. Fish and Wildlife Service included captive chimps in its endangered species designation. ![]() In 2015, the National Institutes of Health decided to abandon it, and the U.S. Two recent developments hobbled chimp research in the U.S. Could it have been gained another way? We will never know.” “Obviously,” Conlee says, “gains were made. It may have been crucial in distinguishing Hepatitis C from Hepatitis B. This doesn’t mean all the chimp research proved worthless. Kathleen Conlee, the Humane Society’s vice president for animal research issues, says "We call that the 'high-fidelity fallacy.'" The notion that our closest non-human relatives would be uniquely valuable for medical research hasn't panned out, Goodrich explains. But it’s difficult to give chimps human AIDS, so their relative ineffectiveness in scientific efforts for a cure led to an immediate surplus. Research labs pumped up their chimp populations in the 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic prompted a scramble to get a handle on the disease. Goodrich says that other research shows chimps crack nuts more efficiently than humans do with access to the same primitive tools. Different bands of chimps use different techniques and tools, but researchers have found that a lone chimp entering a new troop adopts that troop's technique, even if the technique is inferior. Chimps pass the technique down to younger generations. So, the chimps use tools: They’ll find a natural anvil, place the nut on top, and hit it with a rock to get the meat. In the jungle, Goodrich explains, chimps encounter nuts with shells so thick their jaws can't crack them. A chimp named Foxy is cracking whole walnut shells with her teeth. Later, from inside the chimps’ enclosure, comes a sound like the breaking of rigid plastic. The sanctuary has backup generators to make sure that even if a storm or other event knocks out utility power, the fence wire will stay hot. In peaceful moments, four or five of them will flop over onto each other in a big chimp pile. There’s more than enough room for the chimps to get space from each other, but Goodrich says they mostly prefer to hang out in groups. They go out in virtually all weather, although when it's really cold, they don't stay out long. She says they actually seem to like cool, cloudy days. “I call them Northwestern chimps,” Goodrich says. How do they fare in the Northwest weather? The grounds of the Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest near Cle Elum, Wash., June 7, 2018. Chimps originate from equatorial Africa, but it gets cold in Cle Elum. Primatology students from their alma mater, Central Washington University (where the famous chimp Washoe and others once learned American Sign Language) gain hands-on experience as interns while doing much of the endless daily work.īehind the building, a tall wire fence, double-layered, with burly posts and braces encloses a two-acre outdoor exercise yard that runs from the back door of a translucent “greenhouse” area up a grassy hill. Goodrich and Mulcahy don’t do all the work alone. With these improvements, Goodrich and Mulcahy are helping humanity atone for an ugly history of using our closest non-human relatives for research and entertainment. They expect a new veterinary building to be finished by the end of the year. They’ve added acreage and what they hope will be the first of several new structures to the sanctuary.Ī Yakima contractor poured a concrete slab in early August. No sign marks their driveway, and they don’t readily give out their location because they don’t want the distraction outside visitors would bring.īut without access to government funds, they do rely on outside donors - and with donations in hand, they have started expanding the sanctuary and its care. An old, unpainted wooden barn stands nearby. Mulcahy, live in a house near the main building. The sanctuary’s co-directors, Diana Goodrich and J.B. They’re all retired: Most worked in labs before they came here, but one was an entertainer. He and six other chimps have lived there for a decade. Burrito and his pals have started their active day, thriving improbably in the Cascade foothills. ![]()
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