Nearly 360 Laboratory Chimpanzees to Be Released

The National Institutes of Health has announced that it will begin to release nearly 360 laboratory chimpanzees who were previously subject to medical and psychological experiments and unnatural living environments for up to 50 years. According to The Humane Society of the United States, the NIH’s decision was due to a 2011 Institute of Medicine study, which found that primates are not necessary for effective biomedical and behavioral research. At the behest of animal-welfare groups such as the HSUS, the NIH still plans to keep approximately 50 chimpanzees for possible experimentation in the future, but it will significantly reduce the amount of government-issued funding that it receives for primate testing.