Former Research Chimpanzees Retire

ProCon Debate: Should Animal Testing Be Allowed?

ProCon Issue in the News: Former National Institutes of Health (NIH) research chimpanzees Al and Kamaka have retired from the Alamogordo Primate Facility, which is located on a U.S. Air Force base in New Mexico, and were moved to their new home at Chimp Haven—the world’s largest chimpanzee sanctuary— in Louisiana. A third chimp, a female, died during the transport.

These were the last chimps remaining at the Alamogordo facility. They were kept there longer than other chimps because they were considered too vulnerable to travel owing to their ages. However, most of the chimps’ caregivers were set to retire soon and would be difficult to replace, so the remaining chimps, including Al and Kamaka, were taken in by Chimp Haven.

Both male chimps are in their 50s and have recently been introduced to a new social group in Louisiana, including a male chimp, Tabu, and four females. Even though Al and Kamaka were born in the wild, they likely never socialized with female chimps while in captivity. The staff at Chimp Haven suspects that Kamaka and Roxanne, a female chimp in his group, have “a mild mutual crush.”

The NIH stopped biomedical research on chimpanzees in November 2015 and has since sent almost all of its 300 chimps to Chimp Haven. Two small groups of chimps have not yet been relocated from Texas facilities. One group remains because the healthy chimps are emotionally attached to an ailing chimp there, but they should also be relocated after the death of their friend.

Discussion Questions

1. Should animal testing be allowed? Why or why not?
2. If animal testing is allowed, which animals should be used as research subjects? Explain your answer.
3. If animal testing is not allowed, what other methods of testing should be used? Review ProCon’s feature on the topic. Consider existing methods, and use your imagination to create new ones.

Sources

• Nell Greenfieldboyce, “Aging Former Research Chimps Move to Chimp Haven” (April 10, 2025), npr.org
• Nell Greenfieldboyce, “Frail Chimps Headed From New Mexico to Louisiana Sanctuary” (November 8, 2024), npr.org
• National Institutes of Health, “NIH Will No Longer Support Biomedical Research on Chimpanzees” (November 17, 2015), nih.gov
• Rana Smith, “The Alamogordo Chimps Are Home” (April 8, 2025), chimphaven.org