Back

The Deaths of 9 Retired Research Chimps Ignite a Biology Feud

The Deaths of 9 Retired Research Chimps Ignite a Biology Feud

 Retired biomedical lab chimps find sanctuary at Chimp Haven in Louisiana

A retired lab chimp looks out from his group enclosure at Chimp Haven, the National Chimpanzee Sanctuary, in Keithville, Louisiana, on September 30, 2014.Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor/Getty

In 2014 and 2015, thirteen chimps made a trek from Texas to Louisiana. Their home had been a cancer research lab; their destination was Chimp Haven, a sanctuary 22 miles southwest of Shreveport, Louisiana. The haven was supposed to be a place for the primates to retire in peace. But in the past 15 months, nine of those chimps—Simon, Maynard, Pierre, Ursula, Zippy, Cesar, Polly, Gigi, and Gimp—have died. Read more.