Rule Would List All Chimps As Endangered, Even Lab Animals

This week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a new rule that would extend “endangered species” protections to chimpanzees held in captivity. Nearly half of all the chimps in the U.S. live in research facilities, and the regulation changes would make it more difficult to use these animals in medical experiments.

But don’t expect an outcry among most scientists. In the past decade or so, “there has been a significant shift away from using chimpanzees in research,” says Kathleen Conlee, the vice president of animal research issues at the Humane Society of the United States.

Scientists first became interested in studying chimps in the 1920s to gain insights into primate psychology — including, they hoped, the psychology of humans.