220 Chimps Who Grew Up In A Lab To Be Set Free...Throwback To Monkeys Seeing The Sky For The First Time

The Dodo – More than 200 chimps who spent their lives in a lab are about to have their first taste of freedom.

Among their number will be Hercules and Leo, two chimps who have been the focus of a years-long battle by Jane Goodall and other advocates to free them.

The New Iberia Research Center — a University of Louisiana research facility that has long attracted criticism for its extensive chimp research program — has agreed to release its population of 220 chimps into the care of Project Chimps, a new sanctuary that just announced its creation on Tuesday.

It will be one of the largest chimp releases in history, and the first time that a private research program has agreed to release all of its chimps — reflecting a significant change in public acceptance of chimp experimentation.

“There is one 1-year-old, that’s the youngest, and they go up through grandmas and grandpas,” Baeckler Davis told The Dodo. The oldest is 50. Most of the 220 chimps were born into New Iberia’s breeding program; the oldest ones were likely taken from the wild.

For many, Project Chimps will be their first taste of life outside a lab.

“It’s a whole new world for these guys,” Baeckler Davis added.

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Hell yeah, perfect time for a throwback to one of the best videos ever.

Lab chimps see daylight for the first time in 30 years.

Fuck your labs.