Last year
This American Life covered the topic of retired chimpanzees. Chimps, it turns out, are the only animals we don't euthanize when we're done experimenting or keeping them as pets (because they seem so much like humans). What that means is that we need place for all the retired research, actor and pet chimps of this country.
So, in 2000 the US passed the Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance and Protection (CHIMP) Act. As the
Humane Society explains, "The CHIMP Act establishes a national sanctuary system for those chimpanzees who have provided long service in laboratories, enduring sometimes painful and distressing experimental procedures." What came out of that act was a retirement home called
Chimp Haven, located about 20 miles away from Shreveport, Louisiana where the chimps are treated somewhere between animals and human retirees.
Just thought you should know.