NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The first chimpanzees from a south Louisiana lab have arrived at the national sanctuary for retired federal research chimps, with a recommendation for hundreds more to be sent there from other laboratories around the country.
Nine chimps came to Chimp Haven outside Shreveport on Tuesday from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's New Iberia Research Center, which no longer has an NIH chimp research contract. Sanctuary officials say seven more are expected Thursday and another 95 will arrive at Keithville over the coming months.
As the New Iberia animals arrived, a National Institutes of Health committee was recommending that all but about 50 of the agency's hundreds of research chimpanzees should be retired to the national sanctuary, and all of them should have plenty of room to play.
