Research Labs With Chimpanzees

The chimpanzees housed or used in U.S. research laboratories today reside mostly in a handful of facilities. This section offers detailed information on each of those labs, when available, including:
History and profile
Types of research conducted
Information on how chimpanzees are used
Attempts to secure U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection reports for Animal Welfare Act (AWA) compliance
Attempts to secure information on which chimpanzees reside or have died there
Government funding
Over the next year, Project R&R expects to augment these summaries, and welcomes any first-hand knowledge or other information.
Categories of laboratories
The laboratories profiled in this section are divided into three categories:
The six major research labs holding the majority of chimpanzees
Other federally-owned facilities
Other facilities that hold smaller numbers of chimpanzees
This section does not address any other types of facilities housing captive chimpanzees (i.e., entertainment, pets, zoos), nor can it account for all of the chimpanzees in private labs, since those facilities are not required to divulge such information.
Two of the labs – Yerkes National Primate Research Center (Yerkes) and Southwest National Primate Research Center (Southwest) are part of the National Primate Research system established by the federal government in 1960. Of the eight National Primate Research Centers, Yerkes and Southwest are the only labs that use or house chimpanzees.
Lab Types
There are several different types of laboratories:
Federally-owned facilities (e.g. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Private facilities that receive federal funding for chimpanzee research (e.g. BIOQUAL, Inc., New Iberia Research Center)
Private facilities that receive federal funding and are part of the National Primate Research system (e.g. Yerkes, Southwest)
Federally-owned facilities operated by private companies (e.g. Alamogordo Primate Facility)
Difficulty in obtaining information
It is generally difficult to obtain information from most of the labs holding chimpanzees in the United States. Some facilities receiving federal funding also conduct research for private companies. On these grounds, they claim that they are privately operated and therefore are not subject to federal disclosure laws.
The facilities are also often slow to produce requested information. For example, in early summer 2004, Project R&R requested U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) animal welfare inspection reports from all of the facilities housing chimpanzees (with the exception of the Language Research Center and the Comparative Cognition Project). The requests were all refiled at the end of July 2005. We received the requested documents in November 2005.
In addition, private facilities (as well as other federal labs such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) may contract with outside research facilities that also receive public funding (such as the Southwest National Primate Research Center) to conduct chimpanzee research. Information on privately funded research within a laboratory that also receives federal research funding is not publicly accessible.
More public funding, less public disclosure
In his January 2005 State of the Union address, President Bush thanked the U.S. Congress for “doubling the funding for the National Institutes of Health.” Unfortunately, current U.S. administrative policy further restricts public information about government activities, including the funding of research involving chimpanzees. Therefore, while more taxpayer dollars are being spent, those same taxpayers are allowed to know less and less about the research they are funding.
If you have additional information on any of these laboratories, please contact us.
For more information on the difficulty of obtaining information on chimpanzees kept in laboratories and their conditions, see Uncovering the Truth.
Sources
The chimpanzee numbers provided in the linked pages are based on reports from the Primate Information Network (PIN) website, a resource maintained by the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center for researchers. http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/
Sources of information provided in the linked pages include:
(1) David Cantor In P. Cavalieri, P. Singer (eds.), The Great Ape Project. New York: St.
(2) Martin’s Griffin, 1993, pp. 280-290.
(3) Boston Globe: Christopher Rowland, Cruelty Charges Dropped against Charles River Labs (Mar. 29, 2005)
(4) San Antonio Express-News: Cindy, Tumeil, S.A. scientists working on vaccine for AIDS (Aug. 14, 2005)
(5) Jane Goodall, Chimpanzees and Change, Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing
(6) Newsletter: Vol. 14, No. 1, Fall 1996
(7) www.nirc.louisiana.edu
(8) www.yerkes.emory.edu
(9) www.mdanderson.org
(10) www.snprc.org
(11) www.bioqual.com
(12) www.cdc.gov
(13) www.nih.gov
(14) www.fda.gov
(15) www.chimpcenter.osu.edu/chimps.htm
(16) www2.gsu.edu/~wwwlrc/home.htm
(17) www.seec.net
(18) www.nihchimpcruelty.com
(19) www.ncrr.nih.gov/ncrrprog/cmpdir/PRIMATES.asp
(20) www.newiberia.vivisectioninfo.org/NewIberiaWhistleblowerLawsuit.pdf
(21) www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-08/euhs-cnn081905.php
(22) www.emory.edu/LIVING_LINKS/ChimpCultures/conformity.htm