The animal welfare networks are abuzz with the news about the new protection status of captive chimpanzees. The decision is a milestone in the right direction.

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced it would give the same protections to chimpanzees held in captivity as it does their free-living relatives in Africa! The decision reverses a decades-long policy that contributed to the inhumane and wasteful use of chimpanzees in biomedical research for humans. Their new FWS endangered status affords chimpanzees much-needed protections, such as restrictions on their use in research and entertainment.

“FWS’ decision to protect all chimpanzees is an essential next step toward elevating their importance to Americans and worldwide,” says NEAVS President Theodora Capaldo, EdD. “Had their now endangered status applied to those in captivity decades ago, it would not have completely prohibited using chimpanzees in research, but it would have severely limited the ways.”

You can read more here:

http://www.neavs.org/alerts/info/care-about-chimpanzees

http://www.janegoodall.org/esaqandawithjane

http://www.fws.gov/endangered/what-we-do/chimpanzee.html?utm_source=U.S.+Fish+and+Wildlife+Service+Endangered&utm_campaign=Split+List&utm_medium=email

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