Sanctuaries for displaced and rescued primates provide essential welfare services requiring high standards to operate effectively.
Primate sanctuaries exist because human activity continuously generates displaced, injured, and traumatized primates who need lifetime care. The welfare quality of sanctuaries varies enormously from genuinely excellent facilities providing near-natural social environments to chronically underfunded operations where primates survive but do not thrive. Standards matter: primates require social companions of their own species, complex environments, skilled behavioral management, and veterinary care. A chimpanzee living alone in a small cage despite technically being in a sanctuary has different welfare from one living in a social group with outdoor access. Accreditation and transparency about standards help donors distinguish between these outcomes.