After 50 years in a laboratory, Montessa is finally getting a chance to enjoy life to the fullest. The 51-year-old chimp was brought to Alamogordo Primate Facility in New Mexico in 1975 when she was just a year old. She spent her first 30 years there being used in harmful biomedical research experiments.
But a few weeks ago, after years of delays, and half a century at Alamogordo, Montessa made the journey to her new home at Chimp Haven, a lush 200-acre sanctuary in Louisiana.
And Montessa did not make that journey on her own; she traveled to Chimp Haven with Chauncy, Guido, Henry, Shogun and Socorro. Since January, a total of 21 chimps have arrived at the sanctuary; they were the last ones to leave the Alamogordo lab, which has closed. At Chimp Haven, a sanctuary designed for their unique needs, they have joined hundreds of other federally owned and supported chimpanzees. There, specialists trained in chimpanzee behavior and medicine will work to ensure that the chimps enjoy happier and more peaceful lives in a naturalistic environment that offers them much more than would ever have been possible in the barren and sterile setting of a government laboratory.
These extraordinarily resilient chimps have captured the hearts of the Chimp Haven staff, and although they are still settling in, they are doing well, and some are already making new friends. Al and Kamaka, brought to the U.S. as babies, are two of the male chimps who arrived from Alamogordo earlier this year. They had been living in a small group of males at the lab, and it is believed that they never lived with females there. After they arrived at Chimp Haven, they were introduced to a new, larger social group that includes four strong females.
There actually seem to be some crushes developing between Al and Kamaka and two of the ladies, Wotoni and Roxanne. In this short video, you can see Al being groomed by Wotoni.
The caregivers at Chimp Haven can’t wait to see how the chimps’ bonds continue to grow as they establish new friendships, and neither can we. The new arrivals range in age from 38 to 62 and we are overjoyed that they get to have these experiences at this incredible sanctuary.
That these chimps are now at Chimp Haven is truly a historic achievement and it has involved the work of many hands. It is the culmination of a quarter century’s effort, and a coordinated campaign that has involved lobbying, litigation, corporate outreach, applied animal behavior studies, and massive public outreach. Among other actions, we pushed for the establishment of a federal sanctuary for chimps, led the call for a government report to assess the actual value of experiments with chimpanzees, filed a federal legal petition to secure their protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, carried out several large-scale letter writing campaigns to hold the NIH to its word, and filed a lawsuit that prompted a federal judge’s declaration in 2022 that the NIH’s earlier decision to deny these chimpanzees their chance at retirement was illegal.
For these and other reasons, we are ecstatic that this long-fought battle for the New Mexico chimpanzees has ended with their enthusiastic reception at Chimp Haven, where they will spend the rest of their lives in comfort and peace. But there is a simpler and more sublime satisfaction in seeing them safe and happy in a forever home. After all they’ve been through, over the many decades, they deserve this outcome. It has ended this way as a result of amazing work by our colleagues, past and present, including scientists, campaigners, litigators, lobbyists, and technical experts, and, of course, it is an achievement that we could never have realized without the faith and dedication of tens of thousands of supporters who shared our determination to place these animals beyond the reach of any further harm or suffering.
Sara Amundson is president of Humane World Action Fund.
