S P A C E C H I M P S

History of the Air Force Chimpanzees Background

In the late 1950s the United States Air Force established a colony of wild-caught chimpanzees at the Holloman Air Force base in New Mexico. The group consisted of 65 infants captured in Africa after hunters undoubtedly killed their mothers and other protective group members. These chimpanzees were to be used to gauge the effects of space travel on humans. The tests the Air Force put them through included spinning them in giant centrifuges, exposing them to powerful G-forces, and measuring how long it took a chimpanzee to lose consciousness in a decompression chamber. The first 'chimponaut', three-year-old Ham, rocketed into space on January 31, 1961. According to NASA's archives, "Ham's survival, despite a host of harrowing mischances..., raised the confidence of the astronauts and the capsule engineers alike." Three months later, Alan Shepard became the first American in space. NASA's next mission was getting a capsule into orbit, and on November 29, 1961, five-year-old Enos was launched into space. Due to a malfunction inside the capsule, Enos was given an electric shock for every correct maneuver he made, a reward-punishment system that contradicted over a year of training. Rather than alter his behavior, Enos endured the shocks and performed the flight tasks he knew were right. The flight took Enos on a two-orbit ride and landed him alive. This qualified the system for manned flight, and the following year John Glenn orbited the earth three times. America took its astronaut heroes to heart with an enthusiasm that surprised the nation. In March 1962 four million people in New York City showered confetti on John Glenn and fellow astronauts Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom. The Air Force chimpanzees were not so lucky. After showing the "right stuff," the chimpanzees were reassigned to "hazardous mission environments." In one such "environment," the development of the seat belt, the chimpanzees were subjected to perilous levels of force while in restraints in deceleration sleds. By the 1970s the Air Force stopped using the chimpanzees and began leasing them out for biomedical research purposes. Air Force Gives Chimpanzees AwayIn June 1997 the Air Force announced that it would give its chimpanzees away via a public divestiture authorized by Congress. Under the divestiture the chimpanzees would either be given to a research laboratory, or be retired to a sanctuary. Save the Chimps, which counts world-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall among its board of directors, submitted a proposal to retire the chimpanzees to a sanctuary but, the bid was rejected. Despite a Congressional mandate that instructed the Air Force to award the chimps to an organization that would best provide for their welfare, the Air Force awarded most of them to The Coulston Foundation, a New Mexico research laboratory. This in spite of the fact that the laboratory was investigated twice during the divestment by the US Department of Agriculture for violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including several negligent chimpanzee deaths. Lawsuit FiledTwo months after the chimpanzees were transferred to the Coulston Foundation, Save the Chimps filed a lawsuit in the Court of Federal Claims against the Air Force. Save the Chimps argued the award to the Coulston Foundation violated both Federal Law and the Air Force's own divestment criteria. In October 1999, after a year-long legal struggle, Save the Chimps and the Coulston Foundation entered into an agreement which gave Save the Chimps custody of 21 of the chimpanzees. The chimpanzees are now permanently retired at our South Florida Sanctuary.