Another lawsuit fell into the hopper at the Bexar County Courthouse on Monday over a group of retired research chimpanzees from Ohio State University that now live at Chimp Haven sanctuary in Louisiana.

Primarily Primates of San Antonio, which housed the chimps for several months last year, filed a lawsuit in state district court to force Chimp Haven to return the seven animals.

“We believe we hold title to them,” said Priscilla Feral of Friends of Animals, a national animal advocacy group that has merged with the San Antonio sanctuary. “Their designated place of retirement was Primarily Primates.”

The animals lived briefly at Primarily Primates in 2006 but were transferred to Chimp Haven in the fall after the Texas attorney general successfully petitioned an Austin court to appoint a receiver to run the sanctuary.

The receiver moved dozens of animals to other sanctuaries and zoos around the country, saying that conditions at Primarily Primates were overcrowded.

Primarily Primates and the attorney general settled their dispute in May, and the sanctuary’s restructured board now is moving to reclaim many of the relocated animals.

Rick Dela Haya, spokesman for Chimp Haven, was unaware of the lawsuit.

“That is absolutely news to me,” he said Monday.

When OSU moved the retired chimps to San Antonio, it pledged more than $300,000 so Primarily Primates could build enclosures for the animals and provide for their care.

Construction is nearly complete on two new chimpanzee enclosures, Feral said Monday.

The plan is for the OSU chimps to live in a family group along with two other chimps that the receiver sent to a sanctuary in Oregon.

That facility has gone to a federal court there in a bid to keep the animals.

This article first appeared in the Aug. 7 Express-News. Primarily Primates is located at 26099 Dull Knife Trail in the Leon Springs area.