Caddo Board Votes Thurday On Chimp Haven Expansion

SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — The Caddo Parish Commission will vote Thursday on a resolution asking the federal government to pay for expanding the national sanctuary for retired research chimpanzees so it can take 110 animals from a laboratory in New Iberia.

The Times reports that Chimp Haven director Linda Brant told commissioners Monday that sanctuary officials have been working with Sen. Mary Landrieu and Sen. David Vitter to get $2.5 million for the expansion.

The National Institutes of Health said in September that it was removing all 110 federally owned chimpanzees from the University of Louisianaat Lafayette's New Iberia Research Center. It said 10 would go to Chimp Haven in Keithville and the rest to a biomedical research facility in San Antonio, Texas.