Chimp Haven
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| Date opened | 2005 |
|---|---|
| Location |
Keithville, Louisiana United States
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| Coordinates | 32°15′16.76″N 93°56′12.00″W / 32.2546556°N 93.9366667°WCoordinates: 32°15′16.76″N 93°56′12.00″W / 32.2546556°N 93.9366667°W |
| Land area | 200 acres |
| Number of animals | >190 |
| Memberships | Association for the Assessment and Accreditation for Laboratory Animal Care, International and Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries |
| Website | chimphaven.org |
Chimp Haven, the National Chimpanzee Sanctuary, is a non-profit facility in the U.S. providing a home for chimpanzees retired from laboratory research, formerly kept as pets, and used in entertainment. The 200-acre sanctuary is located in Eddie D. Jones Nature Park in Keithville, Louisiana, approximately 22 miles southwest of Shreveport.
In addition to their use as pets and entertainers, captive chimpanzees have served as subjects for scientific research. Anticipating that medical research on chimpanzees would be key to understanding diseases, such as AIDS and hepatitis, the United States government and private laboratories embarked on chimpanzee breeding programs in the 1980s. A decade later, the experimental use of chimpanzees declined, resulting in a surplus population of captive chimpanzees.
The significant cost of caring for the approximately 1,000 chimpanzees housed in U.S. research facilities required the development of alternatives to standard laboratory housing for chimpanzees no longer active in research. Concurrent with the plight of research chimpanzees, hundreds of privately owned chimpanzees who proved unmanageable to keep as pets or performers were also in need of a professionally run facility—a sanctuary.
While the government was recognizing the need for long‐term care for chimpanzees, a philosophically diverse group of individuals representing the primatological, pharmaceutical, animal protection, zoo and business communities was already envisioning the creation of a model sanctuary for retired chimpanzees. The group incorporated as Chimp Haven, Inc. in 1995.
In 1999, Chimp Haven convened a facility design workshop with zoo designers, laboratory architects and field biologists to create a cost‐effective sanctuary that would meet all the special needs of retired chimpanzees. In 2000, the Caddo Parish Commission in Northwest Louisiana donated 200 wooded acres of the Eddie D. Jones Nature Park to Chimp Haven to build the new facility.
In 2000, the United States Congress passed the Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance and Protection (CHIMP) Act. The CHIMP Act authorized the establishment of a sanctuary system for chimpanzees retired from medical research. Congress mandated that the National Institutes of Health implement the CHIMP Act. The Act stipulated that the government would pay 75 percent of the operating cost and 90 percent of the construction funds for the sanctuary system. The organization chosen to run the system would have to raise the remainder of the funding from private sources.
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Wikipedia