History
Chimpanzees have been utilized in the exploration of space and the advancement of medicine. However advancing technology meant that fewer chimpanzees are now needed in these fields, and many that were bred to be used as such are no longer needed. There were too many to be taken in by zoos, so in 1995 the Chimp Haven organisation was founded, with the aim of providing sanctuary to the increasing number of chimpanzees no longer needed for their original role.
In 1997, a report by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) into the management of chimpanzees used for medical research concluded that long-term care facilities were the best and most cost-effective solution for chimpanzees no longer needed in medical research. In 2000 the Chimpanzee Health, Improvement, Maintenance & Protection (C.H.I.M.P.) Act was passed giving support for chimpanzee sanctuaries such as Chimp Haven. The Act stated that funding was to come partly from the NIH and partly from private donations.
In 2002, as provided under the CHIMP Act, the NIH selected Chimp Haven to build and operate the national chimpanzee sanctuary system. Although the NIH underwrote a portion of the sanctuary’s construction and operating costs, Chimp Haven was required to raise matching funds, as well as carry the full responsibility for education and outreach programs. The latter is extremely important, as wildlife and conservation education are incumbent upon any animal stewardship organization, including sanctuaries.
Read more about this topic: Chimp Haven
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)
“The history of any nation follows an undulatory course. In the trough of the wave we find more or less complete anarchy; but the crest is not more or less complete Utopia, but only, at best, a tolerably humane, partially free and fairly just society that invariably carries within itself the seeds of its own decadence.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“The history of the past is but one long struggle upward to equality.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)