Project Chimps

Project Chimps’ mission is to provide lifelong exemplary care to chimpanzees retired from research and there are chimpanzees in a laboratory right now who need our help. We currently have 95 chimpanzee residents, all retired from a biomedical research facility, New Iberia Research Center (“NIRC”) in Louisiana, associated with the University of Louisiana Lafayette. When government regulations and decisions ultimately ended biomedical research on chimpanzees in the United States, more than 200 privately owned chimpanzees resided at NIRC, and no existing sanctuary had room to provide them with lifetime care. Therefore, Project Chimps was founded in 2014, purchased property in the mountains of Georgia in 2015, and the first chimp residents arrived in 2016.

Here at the sanctuary, the chimpanzees live in social groups. We provide 6-7 pounds of fresh produce per chimp daily, robust medical care, and copious amounts of enrichment, ranging from artificial termite mounds to violinists performing concerts for the chimps.

The chimpanzees are thriving in our sanctuary home, but nearly 90 are still housed in NIRC. It has always been the goal and mission of Project Chimps to welcome them to the sanctuary in North Georgia, but we can’t do it without your help. We have a plan in place that would house all the chimps still stuck at NIRC, but we have to raise enough funds to build out the current facility and provide open-air outdoor habitat access to all the chimpanzees.

Phase I, known as the Peachtree Habitat, consists of 6-acres of open-air forested habitat and five villas that accommodate nearly 100 chimpanzees. This year we finished an additional 2-acre yard connected with a Sky Bridge from the current Cedar Tree Villa into the new Annex Habitat.

Our current annual operating cost per chimp is $30,000. Factored costs for care and management associated with these figures include salaries, food, veterinary care, facility maintenance, routine administrative costs, and other expenses. This is consistent with other US-based chimpanzee sanctuaries. With 95 individual chimpanzees to provide for, our operating budget for 2024 will exceed $3.8 million.

As we prepare for expansion to provide a home for the remaining chimpanzees at NIRC, and the significant increase in operating expenses that will be required for decades, it is imperative that we secure sponsorship support from the community and foundations to assist in the capital costs to provide the housing and habitat structures for all of these former lab chimps.