The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that chimpanzees in captivity are now considered endangered and ineligible for certain biomedical research.

Chimps are the closely related to humans and are the preferred animal for testing. Some research will continue, but only if it’s beneficial to the chimps.

Vicki Croke of WBUR's The Wild Life blog speaks with Here & Now‘s Robin Young about why chimpanzees are used for biomedical testing, and what this new ruling means for chimps and humans.

Guest

Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

300x250 Ad

Support quality journalism, like the story above, with your gift right now.

Donate