Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for August 2012

Fun on the hill

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The chimps seem to be spending a little bit more time on the hill lately, despite the super hot weather we’ve been having. Today, when I opened the door for Young’s Hill, everyone went right out. It’s still awesome to see all seven chimps out there at once. Here are a few random good photos from the last couple of days.

Burrito chomping on some grass by the treat rock:

I am completely in love with the new bouncy bridge! We haven’t seen any wild games of chase on it yet, but the chimps seem to like it.

Foxie:

Jamie:

Loving Negra & Shopping for Sanctuaries

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First – there’s still time to shop until your heart’s content at many fabulous businesses that are giving 10% of their proceeds to the Sanctuary Century 100-mile charity bike ride in Portland that will benefit Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, Hope Animal Sanctuary and Out to Pasture Sanctuary. Lots of the participating businesses are online, so there’s no excuse not to blow some money on chocolate, vegan food-stuffs, clothes, jewelry and more. If you’re on Facebook, go to the Sanctuary Century 10% Fundraiser Day event page and hit “more” to see the list of participating businesses. If you’re not on Facebook, you can see a not-quite-complete list of businesses on this announcement from Herbivore Clothing Company. You can also just make a straight-up donation here: http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/TheSanctuaryCentury/thesanctuarycentury2012

Now that you’ve shopped or are getting ready to shop or donate, below are some precious photos from today of J.B. interacting with Negra. It’s a very special occurrence to have these tender moments with Negra because she is the least interactive with her caregivers and often does not like to be touched.

We respect Negra’s wishes and only touch her when she asks to be groomed, which the chimpanzees do by pushing their bodies against the caging. We are big fans of safety at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, and we only do physical interactions with the chimps that do not put ourselves in a position to be bitten or grabbed, so that means that our fingers (or anything else attached to us, for that matter) never enter the fencing when the chimps have access to the other side.

JB grooming Negra's back

 

Negra was really enjoying this attention from J.B., as you’ll see from the three photos below. The chimps know the rules as well as we do, so they know what to expect when a human (only trained caregivers!) touches them, and they choose which parts of their body to present. They have each other for the big hugs and intense grooming sessions that help keep them a cohesive group of chimpanzees – they don’t rely on or need us for that.

JB groom Negra's neck

JB grooms Negra's belly

JB grooms Negra's belly 2

 

We’ve mentioned “getting kisses” from the chimps before. You can see what we mean by this in these two photos. You’ll notice that the only parts of J.B.’s body that he is letting Negra kiss are his elbow and the the back of his hand, and Negra sticks her lips out of the fencing in order to touch J.B., making things safe. This also allows Negra to invite J.B. to be kissed by putting her lips outside of the fencing, so we know when she’s looking for that kind of interaction and when she isn’t. Negra was giving J.B. some pretty long kisses today. Eventually, I felt like I might be intruding on a personal moment between them, so I decided to take the camera and let them have their privacy.

Negra kisses JB's elbow

Negra kises JB's hand

 

Take Action: Good news for CJ, and how to help Crystal

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I am shocked it’s already Friday! With Foxie’s birthday being this week and our (successful!) fundraising drive, this week’s Take Action Tuesday post was a little delayed—but not forgotten!

Last month, we were once again reminded about the tragedy behind keeping chimpanzees as pets. CJ and Buddy, two pet chimps from Las Vegas, escaped from their backyard cage. Though CJ survived the ordeal, Buddy was sadly shot to death. Chimpanzees are not safe as pets, and they can and will bite. They are capable of terrible damage, as seen from the infamous incident with Travis and Charla Nash a few years ago.

Thankfully, last week CJ’s owners decided the best thing for her would be to send her to a reputable sanctuary that would be dedicated to providing quality lifetime care. Chimps, Inc. has agreed to take CJ and give her a home where she can be with other chimpanzees and live in an environment that will fit her needs.

This is great news for CJ, but it is also a reminder of the remaining chimpanzees in the U.S. that are kept as pets and used for entertainment purposes. Chimpanzees are portrayed on TV and in movies as cute and cuddly attractions, which seriously misinforms the public about the true nature of these beings and perpetuates the pet trade.

This problem is not just unique to chimpanzees—monkeys are also very prominent in the media, and it is estimated that thousands of monkeys are kept as pets in this country. Unfortunately, NBC is planning on airing an entire series featuring a capuchin monkey, Crystal, in their upcoming premiere of Animal Practice. Although the show doesn’t start until the fall, NBC is airing a special sneak preview episode immediately following the closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games on Sunday night. Please don’t watch it, and tell your friends not to also! Read this Action Alert to find out how you can speak up for Crystal. Post on the show’s Facebook page, send tweets to your followers telling them not to watch it, and send an email to the Chairman of NBC expressing your feelings about the exploitation of Crystal.

Sadly, this show will only perpetuate the unfortunate pet trade when people watch a monkey living with a human for a companion. The truth is that their complex social, psychological, and physical needs simply cannot be met in a human environment. Nonhuman primates are not meant for our world, and captivity is never an ideal place for any monkey or ape. Take Action today to help Crystal (and join our mailing list, too, to get alerts right in your inbox).

Bouncy Bridge!

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The other day, volunteers from the Boy Scout Troop 336 from Federal Way finished up a fun bouncy bridge (I can speak from experience because Jackie and I just had to, for safety reasons of course, test it out. There is no video of that, however). The video we have is a combination of footage we took from the chimp house and also the chimps’ view from the GoPro camera. Thanks so much to the Boy Scouts for putting this together! I can’t wait to see wild games of chase on the bouncy bridge.

Happy Birthday Foxie!

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I’m pretty sure Foxie was in heaven today. We caregivers were too! Boy Scout Troop 336 from Federal Way made it out yesterday and were able to finish the new bridge. It looks amazing! The chimps were pretty excited about it too– more on that tomorrow.

And, we have just $1,398 to go to meet our goal for $36,000 for Foxie’s Birthday! It’s been an exciting day for everyone! Thanks so much to everyone who’s donated so far and please keep sharing the information with your friends! The day’s not over yet!! Click here to learn more.

As usual, Foxie has been in a super goofy playful mood all day… how could you not be when you are surrounded by all your favorite things?! Thanks so much to everyone who has been tirelessly collecting troll dolls and Dora the Explorer dolls for the big day! I’m pretty sure it was the best day yet for Ms. Foxie. 🙂

Jordan and Lucy love Foxie

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Jordan and Lucy Bower sponsored today for Foxie’s 36th birthday. Jordan and her daughter Lucy are big fans of Miss Foxie, and they show their love frequently and generously. They sponsor Foxie through our Chimpanzee Pal program, and they even sent Foxie some new Dora the Explorer dolls. (Foxie was very grateful.) Thanks so much to Jordan and Lucy for being such great chimp friends! We’ll be sure to throw Foxie a truly magnificent birthday bash today.


(Photo credit: Stephen Brashear)

A cabin for Negra, a party for Foxie, and more!

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If you are a subscriber to our newsletter, you know that we had a lot of news to share yesterday. For example, there’s a story about the chimps’ new friend and ally, Glee star Charlotte Ross. Charlotte spent a wonderful day with the chimps recently and Burrito completely fell in love with her. I think the feelings were mutual, and Charlotte challenged our supporters with a $1,000 match donation. I’m excited to say we’ve already met the match! Thanks so much to Charlotte and everyone who stepped up to her challenge. Here’s Burrito’s new best friend with the staff (and yes, I am counting Jamie chimpanzee in the background as one of the staff). Photo credit: Stephen Brashear.

And there’s more! We met our $30,000 goal for our anniversary fundraising efforts! But we’re not stopping there. We also shared in the newsletter that we were raising the bar – to $36,000 by tomorrow, which is Foxie’s 36th birthday. Can we do it? I think we can! We’re already at $33,397, so we need just about $2,600 to mark Foxie’s birthday as complete. Help us meet this goal by making a donation NOW!

If you’ve already made a donation, or even if you haven’t, help us expand our reach by sharing this post on Facebook using the little “f” button above. Make sure to add a personal note about why you love these chimpanzees, and introduce your friends and family to the sanctuary and the work we do here. These things only take a second, but they really help!