sexual assaults on the rise at the nation's prestigious military academies. >> i remember him turning out the lights and me asking, what are you doing? for any professional athlete, the decision to finally >> women who feel betrayed by quit and move on with your life the military they committed to is agonizing. serve and the pentagon's battle to do something about it. tonight, the story of a professional baseball risk who took an enormous medical risk, spent thousands of dollars of "freeing the chimps." his own money, just for the chance to once again be in the major leagues, to be in what >> so this is the infamous dungeon. >> these research chimps are professionals call "the show." getting their first taste of freedom. but what about the unlucky ones >> reporter: at 39 years old, still behind bars? "the last season." christopher john nitkowski really has no business trying to pitch in the major leagues. at 39, he's banking his career on a risky experiment. in baseball terms, he is a has-been. just don't tell him that. >> do you ever lay in bed and think, am i delusional? >> you go as long as you can. >> one man's willingness to do i had a good friend tell me one anything for one last chance to time, make them tear the uniform off you. play a sport he can't live without. you can do whatever you are revealing investigations. going to do the rest of your life. fascinating characters. you can't play baseball forever. >> reporter: his major league stories with impact. jersey collection is evidence, though, that he has tried. >> they're almost all there. this is "cnn presents" with >> cincinnati, detroit -- >> they're in order.

houston, i went back to detroit. tonight's hosts, randi kaye and drew griffin. >> braves. just this week, secretary of defense leon panetta announced new aggressive policies to >> i got traded to the mets. from the mets i went back to the astros, texas picked me up. combat sexual assault in the military. zero tolerance is the message from the pentagon's top in four weeks i was back in the big leagues again. it's been a roller coaster. commander. >> but ground zero for battling the growing problem may start at >> reporter: so many hired and fired nickkowski, the path is the nation's most prestigious military academies. almost dizzying. he was a fresh-faced rookie in >> reports of sexual assaults at 1995 with the cincinnati reds. the academies rose by nearly 60% then, after ten big league seasons, came the final cut in in the past year, and, out of the 65 cases record reported, only one resulted in the majors -- court-martial. >> that's why two young women the washington nationals in 2005. that only sent him looking for say they are coming forward. in a lawsuit filed this week, other jerseys to wear. they allege they were raped in >> these are my japanese jerseys home and away. i played for three different their first years at the teams in korea. academies. >> reporter: finally last year, tonight they speak to kyra the career-ending injury. he was hurt, he says, right phillips for the first time. here, pitching to high >> reporter: west point. schoolers, trying to increase the naval academy. the air force academy. his velocity. prestigious military he felt a twinge in his pitching institutions tasked with shoulder. training future officers at 39, married with three kids, ethically, spiritually, and morally. it was the moment he should have

stopped playing games, moving on but for these high school honor like so many others into students, their experience would coaching or perhaps a real job. be far different. instead, he took the biggest gamble of his professional >> i remember him turning off career. the lights and me asking, what are you doing? >> be just a little bit of pain >> in the middle of the night, i again. doing all right so far? >> yeah, i'm fine. did come to, and he was on top >> i don't want you to faint on us. >> no. of me. >> reporter: karley marquet and >> i'll take our magic potion. annie kendzior say they were >> reporter: he decided on an raped. experiment, the same experiment raped by fellow classmates they that produced last year's miracle comeback. trusted and ignored, they say, by a chain of command that promised their parents they'd be yankee pitcher bartola colon was protected. all but washed-up until he was >> and nobody, not a single injected with his own stem cells and platelet enriched plasma, person, not one, was looking out prp. for her best interest. at the florida clinic of dr. joseph purita. colon returned to the mound, >> come on, karley! stunning the baseball world with >> reporter: karley marquet was not your typical teenage girl. a better-than-average comeback season. that's her, cage fighting at 18. you think your procedure is what

>> that's it, karley. >> reporter: an all-star rugby did it. >> i think it helped him had. i think it gave him the ability player, a champion swimmer and honor student. to maybe go back and play. i think it's a combination of a lot of factors but certainly i think what we did helped. karley could have gone to college anywhere. what was it about west point >> reporter: last fall nitkowski that drew you to the academy? >> just knowing you kind of have decided he would pay several thousand dollars for the same procedure, first harvesting and reinjecting his own stem cells your future set having that into his damaged shoulder, then structure and discipline but at the same time having people look his own platelet-enriched at you, like, wow, you're doing something great for our country. >> reporter: her sister was a midshipman at the naval academy, her father a marine. plasma, a kind of superblood. to karley, they were heroes, the doctor says there's no everything she wanted to be. scientific proof this works, but his patients, like this man trying to avoid knee surgery, do you think west point let you swear by it. down? purita's critics, however, stop >> yeah. just short of calling him a fraud. >> we might as well be talking about crystals and healing. i wanted to be there. the fact is that stem cells hold great promise because there's it was my dream. >> reporter: a dream that was real scientific and medical rationale for using them. shattered her first year when an but we are ignorant about their upperclassman showed up at her use. door to talk girl troubles. we've certainly had very little >> i kind of felt a little cool experience with putting them into patients.

that an upperclassman wanted to be friends with me and was so what we're worried about are seeking my advice. >> reporter: after sharing a the risks, and the risks are drink, karley says he convinced many. >> reporter: dr. george daley is her to come to his room. past president of the international society for stem since he was an upperclassman, cell research and a physician at she trusted him. children's hospital in boston. >> i remember just getting more at our request, he examined a and more intoxicated, and my long informational packet purita judgment really started to become impaired. had posted on his web site. i remember him turning off the lights and me asking, what are you doing? >> if it were subjected to a and then he proceeded to rape critical analysis by experts in me. the field, it would be dismissed as unfortunately superficial and >> reporter: karley says she woke up disoriented, in physical inaccurate. pain, and afraid to come forward. >> the paper you sent us we gave to george daley. >> i was scared it was going to >> of course i've heard of him. ruin my career. it's interesting. i can't really dispute him i was scared if i said anything that there would constantly be a because of the fact, as i said target on my back. earlier in an interview, we i reached out to people, and don't really have a good uniform they weren't there. idea yet as to what constitutes i just didn't want to leave my room. i mean, he was right across the hall. good platelet-enriched plasma. >> and you still had to work under him, take out his trash. ten different doctors would give >> yes. you ten different answers.

>> why? we need to get together and form an idea as to what it is. >> well, it was part of our >> reporter: nitkowski wasn't duties. interested in a scientific debate, just his shoulder and >> chain of command. another chance at a jersey. >> uh-huh. when we met him last fall, a few >> reporter: chain of command. days after the injections, he military ranks where senior was working out, banging tennis balls from a machine to loosen weeks later, she came forward, up. then agility drills with his personal trainer. finally tossing a football before getting to throw a filed a report and requested an baseball. investigation. >> so how long from right this moment until you pitch a baseball? >> and the reason i ended up >> i kind of play it by ear, but telling someone is because i the goal is somewhere around didn't want that to happen to three weeks. anyone else. >> reporter: but to do that means putting off major life decisions. working out instead of looking for that real job. working out day after day after >> reporter: annie kendzior day. describes herself as a girly girl who never imagined joining the military. >> whoo! >> trying to put him in as an honor student and one of the best high school soccer players neutral position as possible so when he strengthens the rotator in the country, she was heavily cuffs and the shoulders we recruited by top ivy league maximize the strength. schools, but the naval academy was the most convincing. >> you've been working out like crazy. >> all their graduates who do you ever lay in bed and think, am i delusional? graduated from the soccer team >> there's times when you

question yourself. anything you want to do, if you became pilots and marine have a passion about it, you're going to do whatever it takes to officers. it just sounded like, you know, do it. those women are so powerful and so well respected, i wanted to that's where i'm at. there's times doubt definitely creeps in. be that woman. >> reporter: annie's goal was to i say, what am i doing? fight f-18s. but it wasn't long after >> reporter: what he is trying arriving she realized that to do is make a miracle wasn't going to happen. comeback, as a pitching >> i could tell that there was definitely a bias towards the specialist, a side-armer, women. i mean, you're a female entering brought in to give one or two left-handers out in the late into a fraternity, a giant frat. innings. a new athlete, revived with the >> reporter: annie says there help of stem cells. >> your job would be to come in, were no derogatory names for the get that lefty out in the big situation, get out of the game as quickly as possible, before a righty comes up. yeah. men, but for the women? >> reporter: by december, he was they were called dubs. >> dub? at an indoor facility in new dumb ugly bitch. jersey throwing a baseball again >> were you called a dub? and with some zip. >> there's some life there. >> every girl was. >> reporter: it was a different still got some work to do, but culture and annie felt out of i'm thrilled where i am right place. now. so when she got invited to an off-campus party she was in. >> i was, like, cool, college finally. >> reporter: thrilled or not, pitching off an indoor mound was i can live the college life for one thing. pitching against a hitter was one night. another.

>> reporter: but annie says she had way too much to drink. so when a fellow midshipman >> what is next is trying find a offered her a place to crash, place to pitch. she accepted. >> reporter: coming up -- a baseball nomad winds up yet in another field of dreams. >> i was, like, okay, it will be or is this a pipe dream? >> i don't want to say it's been fine. i trust you, you're in upper a debacle, but a lot of back-and-forth and uncertainty from the beginning. class. they teach you to trust your upper class. >> tell me what happened once he took you back to the room. >> i just laid down and went to sleep. at one point, in the midst of t the night, i did come to, and he was on top of me. and i remember saying no. but then i just passed back out again. >> reporter: annie was afraid to come forward. why were you scared? >> i didn't want to be the girl that got the athlete kicked out. because we had been told stories i'm an expert on softball. and tea parties. about how that had happened in the past. and i didn't want to be that i'll have more awkward conversations next story. than i'm equipped for >> reporter: for two years, because i'm raising two girls on my own. annie battled depression and i'll worry about the economy thoughts of suicide. more than a few times before they're grown. she had a secret she couldn't but it's for them, keep anymore and finally called so i've found a way. her father. who matters most to you says the most about you.

>> and she said, i was raped. massmutual is owned by our policyholders and i couldn't breathe. so they matter most to us. >> reporter: still ahead -- the battle to change the system. massmutual. we'll help you get there. you know what's exciting, graduation. how do you get it through these men's heads, if they rape, they when i look up into my student's faces, i see pride. will pay the price? his, uh, ret. you know, i have done something worthwhile. one golden crown. come on frank how long have we known each other? when i earned my doctorate through university of phoenix, go to e-trade. they got killer tools man. they'll help you nail a retirement plan that's fierce. that pride, that was on my face. two golden crowns. i am jocelyn taylor, i am committed to making a difference you realize the odds of winning are the same as being mauled by a polar bear and a regular bear in the same day? in peoples lives and i am a phoenix. frank! oh wow, you didn't win? i wanna show you something... it's my shocked face. [ gasps ] ♪ [ male announcer ] get a retirement plan that works at e-trade. ♪ where the sun never goes out ♪ in here, great food demands a great presentation. so at&t showed corporate caterers how to better collaborate by using a mobile solution, ♪ and the sky is deep and blue ♪ in a whole new way. using real-time photo sharing abilities, ♪ won't you take me they can create and maintain high standards, american flight 280 to miami is now ready for boarding. ♪ there with you from kitchen to table.

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with his stem cell injections behind him, his pitching arm rehabilitated, c.j. nitkowski is about to head to a place he's never been, but will it lead him back to the major leagues? in a lawsuit just filed, allegations of rape at west point and the naval academy. >> reporter: it's the second day two young women say they risked of the new year, and c.j. nitkowski is chasing his dream. again. their careers to come forward this time in santa domingo, and request an investigation. capital of the dominican republic. they wanted the men they say raped them to be prosecuted. >> it took a lot of patience, phone calls. one year later, they're still i've been trying to do this waiting. kyra phillips continues our investigation. since october, trying to get here. >> reporter: he paid his own way, just to get a chance at a >> reporter: when karley marquet tryout with one of the four came forward to say she was baseball teams still playing dominican winter ball. >> i told my agent, i said, listen, if you can get a team raped at west point, she believed her case would be even slightly interested, let investigated. >> i remember the investigators them know i'll come down, throw for them, let them see me in person.

i understand teams will be hesitant because i didn't play meeting with my parents, and they promised my parents that, baseball this year. if he wasn't going to jail, they >> reporter: that's why could at least get him kicked nitkowski finds himself here, out of west point with the evidence they had. outside the biggest baseball >> but he's still there. stadium in santa domingo, checking his blackberry, not >> he's still there. >> reporter: annie kendzior quite sure what's going to said she believed, too, her happen next. >> i don't want to say it's a allegations of rape would be been a debalk ebel, but it's investigated. >> i was, like, they're going to get him. been a back-and-forth and good. >> reporter: but karley and uncertainty unser annie say their perpetrators uncertainty from the beginning. were never punished. i was told two weeks ago i so they filed a lawsuit naming probably had a job, then told i definitely had a job. former secretary of state, robert gates, the former then that fell through. superintendents of west gate and >> reporter: on this day, his the naval academy, secretary of perseverance pays off. the navy ray mabus and secretary of the army, john mchugh. >> i'm a pretty paient man. >> reporter: he walks into the stadium, not to audition for the the lawsuit claims there was home team but for the visitors, the giants. limited support from commanders and their pitching coach miguel oponte. and failure to ensure sexual predators were prosecuted and incarcerated for their crimes. did you never lose the passion? karley and annie are not alone. >> the passion never goes away reports of sexual assault at the because then you would stop. academies are up nearly 60%. if you lose the passion, start

moving, getting released, if you lose the passion, you're done. so i never lost hope. >> reporter: as the sun sets and the team gets ready for a night and of the 65 reports game, it's time to show what the months of workouts, his stem investigated last year, only one cell therapy, and his rehab have resulted in a court-martial. delivered. >> i ache for those former cadet but there's a problem. a good one. >> i feel fine right now. and midshipman who have had i'm ready to go, so it's a their lives torn up. it shouldn't be that way. matter of what you -- >> reporter: congresswoman jackie speier has gone to the >> i don't need to have you house floor 19 times. >> we need to overhaul this throw no bull pen, no hitters. system. if you tell me that your arm is good enough to pitch in the >> demanding that congress and game, that's good with me because i know you. >> okay. >> reporter: turns out, his the military change the way coach had not really known c.j. but remembered him from a spring training 15 years earlier. sexual assaults are prosecuted. >> you report everything through your chain of command. >> i know you because i was with so i'm raped. houston when you were there. i go to my commander, say, i've been raped. >> '97/'98. my commander can say to me, well, i'm not going to pursue this. >> the fun, the excitement, the or, take an aspirin and go to competitiveness that goes on bed. playing at a high level in any sport, it's hard to find that as long as it's going to be in anywhere else. the chain of command, there's >> you still want in. always going to be a conflict. >> absolutely. i mean, it's fun. >> reporter: her bill, the stop you have a shelf life on your act, would take investigations career, and it chases you. and for me i know it's close, away from the chain of command and maybe it's over. and turn them over to an who knows?

impartial council of civilian >> reporter: in the visitors' and military experts. bull pen, nitkowski throws his >> if you're not going to have pitches anyway with his new your assailant prosecuted, why side-arm delivery. would you want to come forward? he whips a curveball to a young because you're basically setting catcher and throws a few more to a teenage batter. yourself up to lose your career everyone here seems younger. in the military. >> i'm almost 39 years old, you know. >> reporter: speier says for what am i doing with the stem years her calls have gone unanswered, until secretary of cells? why am i trying to change my arm angle? defense leon panetta took but it's a pretty easy answer office. >> we've got to train commanders for me. i'm still passionate about what to understand that when these i do. complaints are brought they've >> reporter: the next afternoon, got to do their damnedest to nitkowski is in a car for the make sure these people are brought to justice. that's the only way we're going long drive into the countryside to try to prevent this in the to his new hometown, san francisco de marcaris and his future, to show people that they can't get away with it. new team. >> they say they'll sign me for >> how do you get it through these men's heads, if they rape, the rest of the playoffs. they will pay the price? i shouldn't say "the rest." for today. >> this place operates by it's probably day by day. command authority, and it has to there's not a lot of margin for error. >> reporter: this is hardly the big leagues. begin at the top, and the baseball refugees from all over message has to go down to the are here. the clubhouse is littered with bottom. >> reporter: still, panetta will

equipment bags from dozens of not take investigations away different teams. from the chain of command, but an hour after arriving, an he is changing the rules. announcing new initiatives just assistant general manager shows one week after our interview. >> what i will do is change the way these cases are handled in the military. up with a contract, a payday. >> reporter: here's what panetta well, not huge. is doing differently. >> $2,500 for the rest of the he created a special victims playoff. unit to investigate sexual >> that's fine, no problem. assaults. now, instead of slowly making thank you very much. appreciate it. their way up the chain of command, all cases will begin at the level of colonel. >> reporter: he gets his new >> everybody has to do due baseball cap and his first job diligence. in professional baseball in commanders like i said have almost two years. bosses. if that commander is not doing >> it feels good. their job, you relieve their i mean, this is what i've worked for, for all this, just to have butts of command. >> reporter: major general mary an opportunity. >> reporter: the fact is, c.j. nitkowski is back but not to what he once was. kay hertog heads the sexual response and prevention office. >> oh, man. >> and you have to look at this >> reporter: he throws side-arm now, hoping for just one more every single day and you have take what every victim says chance to climb that mound, back in the bigs. seriously. i want our victims to come forward. >> reporter: but the changes in he's not as fast, and, by policy come too late for karley marquet and annie kendzior. baseball standards, he is old. their military careers are over.

in five winter league games in >> it hurts me to hear that the dominican republic, he because we betrayed their trust and we didn't take care of them. pitched well enough. and we need to do a much better job. >> reporter: according to the lawsuit, as a result of the but after all the money, all the treatments, all the trials, rape, karley became depressed there has been no stem cell and suicidal. miracle. unable to handle the stress of you spent a long time getting to this very moment, right now. >> yeah. seeing her alleged perpetrator >> that phone ain't ringing. >> no, not yet. but you don't stop. every day, karley resigned from and i think -- there's times west point. >> it was like i felt like a when i get a little down and, like you said, kind of, what am blemish. >> because they knew you reported the rape. >> uh-huh. i doing? should i really be doing this? >> reporter: annie says she, should i be moving on to too, became suicidal. something a little more responsible? she was diagnosed with we'll see. it would be sad to me if i borderline personality disorder didn't get that chance. and, according to her lawsuit, i would hate to go into was then forced to leave the retirement, forced into retirement. academy. >> is this it, though? >> oh, yeah. >> it hurts the message that we're trying to get out there. >> this is the year, this is it? >> oh, absolutely. >> reporter: because of privacy >> reporter: so far that phone is not ringing. issues, panetta couldn't comment specifically on karley and >> that is such a great story. annie's cases, but he does make the question is, though, did the phone ever ring for c.j.? clear that blaming the victim >> once. needs to stop. personality disorder? academic separation? the new york mets called him down to florida, had him try >> i think that's part of the syndrome that we're dealing out, and they never called back.

but he got a different call. this is a different -- a role with, which is that once a call, as it were. decision is made that somehow this prosecution is not going to he's going to be in a movie pitching to a guy portraying move forward, then you basically turn on the victim who brought that complaint and try to do everything possible to make sure jackie robinson in a movie that's actually about the guy that victim doesn't hang around. who signed jackie robinson to be or really diminish them by a major league baseball player, a guy named branch rickey. somehow accusing them of having >> who's going to play branch rickey? psychological problems. >> harrison ford. >> oh, wow. >> big movie, big name, maybe a that syndrome is what we have to break out of. different start for c.j. nitkowski. >> thanks it for our show >> reporter: and for karley and tonight. annie, if coming forward helps i'm randi kaye. with that mission, they want to >> and i'm drew griffin. >> and i'm drew griffin. thanks for joining us. be a part of the battle. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> i know, with at least one person coming forward, there will be others that one day will come forward and say something. >> because then they might get their perpetrators put behind bars, which is where they should be. >> west point and the naval academy say they couldn't comment on karley and annie's allegations because of privacy issues.

both women have requested copies of their case files to learn more about why the men they say raped them are still in the military. coming up -- from the laboratory to freedom. the journey of a group of chimps that get a new lease on life. and when i do find it, i share it with the world. you landed the u.s. tour ? done. this is fantastic ! music is my life and i want to make the most of it without missing a beat. fly without putting your life on pause. be yourself nonstop. american airlines. how did i get here? dumb luck? or good decisions? ones i've made. ones we've all made. about marriage. children. money. about tomorrow. here's to good decisions. who matters most to you says the most about you.

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the disney film "chimpanzee" out just this week shows the cute creatures enjoying life in

the wild acting a lot like us. but thousands of chimps being used for research here in the united states are cooped up in cages. there's a fierce debate over whether the primates should be forced to endure that kind of captivity. a bill before congress would ban invasive research on chimpanzees. john zarrella follows a groups of chimps whose research days are finally over and looks at what's ahead for those who aren't so lucky. >> reporter: winter snow came early, melting now under a warming december sun. a new season begins and for some the beginning of a cross-country journey. to freedom. you hear them long before you see them. when you see them, their features are unmistakable. ten chimpanzees are here with names like bart and sarah. >> sarah! you want to play? no. bart wants to hog all the attention. >> reporter: they've lived most

of their lives behind these walls, some for decades. they were research chimps, used to test everything from the toxicity of pesticides in hairsprays to cures for aids and hepatitis. now these are the last of 266 to leave this one-time biomedical lab the colston foundation in new mexico. for jen fuerstein, director of the save the chimps foundation, is it a promise fulfilled. >> failure was never an option for us, and the only thing that's ever slowed us down is that it takes a long time for the chimps to get used to living in family groups because they didn't have that opportunity growing up. >> reporter: because this is where they lived. >> exactly.

>> reporter: fuerstein is continuing a dream started by her late boss to get these animals, knocked out with darts, injected with disease, blood drawn, a life in a place where they can be, quite simply, chimps. a decade ago, frederick colston lost federal funding after violations of the animal welfare act. in one case, three chimps literally cooked to death when their enclosure heated to 140 degrees. colston, now deceased, denied abuse accusations during a 1995 interview with cnn. >> we don't abuse animals. we try to treat them according to the regulations of the law and even beyond that. >> reporter: facing bankruptcy, he finally sold the facility and animals to save the chimps. it was the beginning of a great migration. for ten years, a dozen or so at a time have left the cold walls and steel bars for a new home, an island sanctuary. >> this is the last crew. >> the last crew. >> yes.

this is the crazy, young, wonderful, vivacious crew. >> reporter: veterinarian jocelyn bezner checks her charges. >> now i want to check over each one, make sure they're healthy. >> reporter: bart was born here, he turned 20 in january 14. his records are sketchy at best, like most of theirs. >> we don't know what the study was for. we just know that he was in a study. >> reporter: experts say every chimp has its own personality. bart's spitting vinegar. he interrupts my conversation with bezner. >> that's the testosterone. >> reporter: he was getting a kick out of his antics. the concrete and steel enclosures have been modified with pass-throughs. the chimps can visit each other, play, roughhouse. it wasn't that way before save the chimps took over. so this is the infamous -- >> this is the dungeon. this is the dungeon. and this a small cage that they lived in.

>> wow. >> reporter: like a prison, one cell after another, chimps lived this way sitting day after day, year after year, until needed for a research project. what do you feel like when you walk in here? >> it's almost like it's haunted. it's a really dismal place. there's not really a lot of good memories here for any of us. >> reporter: here at least it's just memories. the story is much different a few miles down the road at holloman air force base. before humans flew in space, a chimp named ham did. not that he had a choice. the old footage shows chimps being trained, examined, playing, and dying. a chimp strapped into a form-fitting shell is secured inside a cylinder on a rocket sled. he's propelled down the track to test survivability after a sudden stop.

the answer is evident in the lifeless body. once no longer needed, most of these air force chimps eventually ended up in the hands of, you guessed it, frederick colston. by the mid-'90s, colston ran two facilities just miles apart. a rare air force tour in 1997 shed light on the research they were subjected to under colston. >> that animal has been inoculated with hiv. is on hiv protocols. >> reporter: the chimps are now owned by the national institutes of health, nih. there is a moratorium on using or, for that matter, retiring some or all of the 170 chimps housed at holloman until an expert panel weighs in next year. >> they're inactive. they're not involved in research and they, like others that are inactive, are waiting for recommendations from this working group on how many would be needed in the long term.

>> what's troubling to me is, why do you need somebody to tell you how many you need when you folks have been funding it and been responsible for it? why do you need somebody else to tell you your business, how many you need? >> the nih seeks input from the public in many different ways. >> reporter: so until a decision is made on whether they're needed for future research, the chimps sit caged, in limbo. it is estimated these and other federally owned chimps cost taxpayers $30 million a year. while their fate remains uncertain, down the road it's now moving day for bart, sarah, and the others. >> bart, come on! >> reporter: coming up -- the journey to freedom continues.

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>> announcer: we now return to "cnn presents" with your hosts tonight, randi kaye and drew griffin. for chimps bart, sarah and friends, a new life is about to begin. >> but there's a growing debate over the future of nearly 1,000 chimpanzees still in research facilities, costing taxpayers millions of dollars. john zarrella continues our investigation. >> all right! >> reporter: the atmosphere is excited. the staff coaxes the chimps from their enclosures into travel

cages. sarah is the first in. bart is not buying it. >> bart, come on. >> reporter: veterinarian jocelyn bezner has to sedate him. she hides the needle in a glove. >> oh, you're so suspicious. >> reporter: minutes later, after a second injection, bart is out. as the work to coax the others continues, bart is gently moved into the travel cage. it has taken all day. by nightfall, the ten chimps are loaded in the trailer. there are tears, hugs, as the staff and volunteers say good-bye. >> it's time for them to go and start their new life. it's been a long time coming, and we're finally here. >> reporter: the trip from new mexico will take two days, stops only to feed and check on the chimps. the chimpmobile moves east, passing lafayette, alabama, home to the new iberia research center which houses 360

chimpanzees. new iberia was the focus of a 2008 undercover humane society investigation. it shows primates being darted, falling over unconscious, self-mutilating. disturbing video but not torture, says director thomas rowell. >> it never rose to the point of an animal welfare violation or an animal being tortured. it was people maybe rushed to do a job, not being as careful as they could have been. >> reporter: we are allowed in, says rowell, because the future use of chimps in research is in serious doubt. would you have invited cnn cameras in years ago here? >> again, that was not part of our mission, okay? and because it wasn't part of our mission, the answer is no. our mission is public health, not public entertainment. >> reporter: the great ape protection and cost savings act sits in congress.

if passed, it would stop all invasive research using chimpanzees and just last year an institute of medicine study commissioned by the national institutes of health found the use of chimps for current research is in most cases, quote, unnecessary. soon after, the nih suspended all new chimp research grants. so what happens if the approximately 1,000 research chimps are retired? >> chimpanzees, if we don't have them today, we would find other ways of doing the research and i would argue better ways of doing it. >> i think some treatments for cancer, for certain autoimmune diseases will be delayed. i think there will be suffering. i think there will be an increase in deaths among people. >> reporter: some researchers believe chimps will be instrumental in developing vaccines for emerging diseases we've not yet heard of and for hepatitis c. even with hep c, the nih insists it's doing everything it can to eliminate the need for chimps.

>> just in the last year, investigators have developed a mouse model that can be infected with hepatitis c by just introducing a human gene into the mouse. so we're busy trying to create alternative models to avoid the use of chimpanzees. >> reporter: but the nih is not ready to pull the plug entirely. >> we welcome the day when there's no need for the use of chimpanzees in research. >> but you still think that day isn't here yet. >> i don't think it is. >> reporter: nih's anderson tells us they're waiting for guidance from that so-called expert panel that is evaluating for them all things chimp. >> we've asked them to consider all of those options and give us priorities. >> reporter: with not enough sanctuaries, it's clear many chimps might stay right where they are, languishing for the remainder of their lives in places like alamogordo or living in these primadomes.

>> we like the primadomes. we think they're nice enclosures. >> reporter: about a third of the chimps at new iberia live in them, the rest in cages. if new law changes, new iberia hopes to be considered a sanctuary site. the future for research chimps is at best unclear. for bart and sarah and their friends, the future is crystal clear. the chimpmobile has arrived in ft. pierce, florida. their first taste of freedom is finally here. their days in a cage over. one by one, they are released into their new housing enclosures. ten years after this great migration began, the last ten of the 266 one-time research chimps are home. they're greeted by friends who arrived in a group just before them. >> aww! >> that was sweet. >> reporter: the next morning the culmination of a decade's work. >> all right, guys.

are you ready? >> reporter: the doors separating the chimps from their island, from grass and sunshine and fresh air, are opened. >> hi! you did so good. you did so good! you're outside, buddy! >> reporter: you wonder, what are they thinking? is the past forgotten? do they know they are the lucky ones? up next -- how far would you go to play the game you love? one man who's staking his career on a risky medical procedure. [ tom ] we invented the turbine business right here in schenectady.

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