In a press conference last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced that it will classify all captive chimpanzees as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The move will finally end the split designation and will give captive chimps the same status as wild chimpanzees.
“This decision will help us ensure that the world we pass along to our children and grandchildren will be filled with chimpanzees,” said USFWS Director Dan Ashe at the press conference. “We believe this action will ensure that activities affecting all chimpanzees will contribute to the survival of chimpanzees in the wild.”
Concerns surrounding the idea that the new decision could significantly delay and impact biomedical research involving the animals have since arisen. Currently, in the U.S alone there are more than 700 chimps involved in research labs. However, David Johnson is the vice president of Cascades Biosciences Consultants Inc., which consults on biomedical research involving animals, and has spent much of his career with the animals, including studying the animals to develop a hepatitis vaccine, has said “the chimpanzee is no longer an essential model in biomedical research.”
The status change had been up for consideration since 2010, when animal organizations- the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the Jane Goodall Institute had petitioned it, claiming that research chimps were treated inhumanely. They also argued that the animals were too cognitively advanced to be kept in captivity.
The split designation was made in 1990, when wild chimpanzees were relisted as endangered, whilst those in captivity, including those used in research, zoos and entertainment, remained listed as threatened. The chimp originally earned its status as ‘threatened’ in 1976, due to threats from poaching, disease, and capture for research. The USFWS had made the decision to reduce the need of capturing those in the wild, and had also received pressure from the biomedical research community using the animals in HIV and other important research.
When the USFWS recently reviewed this policy, they thereafter concluded that the ESA does not allow for a split designation, and acknowledged that by giving chimps in captivity a less protected status it ultimately generated a way to “launder” wild chimps as captive ones.
From the 14 September 2015, the change requires that a permit from USFWS be obtained by anyone working with chimps in the United States. The permits will also be required for the sale and import of the animals, and for “any activities that are likely to result in stress or harm.”
In 2013, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that most government-funded chimpanzee research will be phased out, retiring many of the research chimps. It is hoped that the two initiatives combined will significantly improve the treatment of these intelligent mammals and finally pave the way for a better future for these endangered animals.
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