Animal Rights Activists Nationwide Protest HSUS over Conditions at Project Chimps

In August, hundreds of animal rights activists across the country took to social media to call on The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) to provide the 77 chimpanzees in their care at Project Chimps with daily access to the outdoors. At Project Chimps, HSUS’s 236 acre forested sanctuary in Georgia, the chimpanzees have access to an outdoor habitat for just a few hours every three days. They spend the rest of the time in concrete enclosures.

Jane Velez-Mitchell, an author, animal rights journalist and former TV news anchor with HLN, is calling on HSUS to improve animal welfare at Project Chimps.

On August 14th, activists with the animal rights group CAFT staged a protest at the San Francisco home of Susan Atherton, the Chair of the Board of HSUS. “Can you imagine being locked in a cement cage for days on end, and you only get a break for a just couple of hours to get outside in the sun, in the trees,” said Nick Pecoraro, an organizer with CAFT. “The Humane Society should be doing better.”

Lindsay Vanderhoogt, one of two former employees who Project Chimps sued for blowing the whistle about conditions at the sanctuary, created a video explaining the outdoor access issue. (Crystal Alba, the other whistleblower, is creating a video series about the deficient vet care at Project Chimps. This is the first video in the series.)

In response to a grass roots letter writing campaign in July, HSUS CEO Kitty Block acknowledged the need for additional yards, but she did not specify when Project Chimps would create them. She also blamed “COVID” and “weather” for the delay, despite the fact that the chimpanzees have been living in these conditions since 2016.

HSUS CEO Kitty Block’s response to advocates calling on her to create additional yards at Project Chimps so that the 77 chimpanzees have daily access to the outdoors.

Instead of acknowledging that the chimpanzees have access to the outdoors for just a few hours every three days, HSUS and Project Chimps claim that the chimpanzees have daily access to the outdoors on porches, which are covered concrete rooms with metal bars.

As of 2019, HSUS had $299.5 million in assets according to its tax filings. That year, it generated $159 million in revenues. Given the vast amount of money it raises off of its donors and its penchant for using chimpanzees as fundraising tools, advocates believe that HSUS should invest in outdoor yards now.

Humane Society of the United States 2019 tax filings

Since launching a campaign to help the chimps in mid-2020, whistleblowers from Project Chimps and animal rights groups have asked the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS), a highly esteemed sanctuary accrediting body, why it accredits Project Chimps in light of the fact that it doesn’t meet GFAS standards for great ape sanctuaries. While they did not receive an answer, a TheirTurn investigation revealed close financial and administrative ties between GFAS and HSUS. The conflict of interest is addressed on GFAS’s Wikipedia page.

The Global Federation of Animal Sanctuary’s Wikipedia page includes the conflict of interest that explains why the organization accredits a sanctuary that doesn’t meet its standards

In June 2020, animal rights activists with Progress for Science, Chimps Deserve Better, Do The Right Thing and TheirTurn launched a campaign to help the chimpanzees after learning that Project Chimps sued two whistleblowers who came forward publicly about the poor welfare standards at the sanctuary. The whistleblowers, who posted extensive evidence in support of their claims at HelpTheChimps.org, spent $30,000 on their legal defense before Project Chimps dropped the lawsuit.

“HSUS’s efforts to silence and intimidate whistleblowers inadvertently shined a spotlight on the abysmal welfare conditions at Project Chimps,” said Donny Moss, an organizer in the campaign to help the chimps. “If HSUS hadn’t taken page out of the playbook of big animal ag by suing the women who came forward, then the nationwide grassroots efforts to help these chimps might never have taken place.”

Animal rights activists around the country are calling on The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) to create additional yards at Project Chimps so that the 77 chimpanzees in their care have access to the outdoors every day.