America Banned Research on Chimps – But Half of Them Still Live in Labs

In 2015, The National Institutes of Health made an announcement: It would no longer support invasive biomedical research on chimpanzees. But three years later, the NIH is still struggling to retire the more than 200 federally-owned chimps that remain in labs, to sanctuaries.

This month, 10 years after the first chimps arrived there, Chimp Haven is celebrating a milestone: More than half the NIH chimps have made it into the sanctuary system. VICE News visited Chimp Haven to see what retirement looks like for the lucky half of America’s research chimps.