What high-quality chimpanzee sanctuaries look like and why they are essential for apes displaced by the entertainment, research, and pet trade industries.
Chimpanzees displaced by research, entertainment, and the illegal pet trade represent one of the most challenging welfare problems in animal care. These animals have often experienced profound trauma — isolation, restraint, loss of companions, and profound deprivation of the social complexity central to chimpanzee wellbeing. High-quality sanctuaries work to address this trauma through careful social integration, enriched environments, and the patient rebuilding of the social bonds that define chimpanzee life. The work is long, expensive, and imperfect — but it represents our moral obligation to animals harmed through our exploitation. Supporting accredited chimpanzee sanctuaries is one of the most direct ways to improve the lives of individual great apes.