No more poking, pricking or prodding. If you’re a simian (and you are), it’s good news.

“It’s great news,” said Mary Lee Jensvold, director of the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute at Central Washington University.

“It’s a watershed moment.”

She’s referring to a recommendation last month by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) committee that more than 300 chimpanzees used in government-funded laboratories would no longer be used for research and instead be retired to sanctuaries.

Read more here.

Story and photo courtesy of the Yakima Herald Republic.