Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Sarah

Meet the humans

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Around here we all rightfully view the chimpanzees as the stars of the show. But behind the scenes there are some amazing and wonderful humans who make every day go smoothly and safely. I’m so proud of our team and all they do for the chimps. You can see by the human faces in these pictures that we love our jobs! But you can also see how we safely interact with the chimpanzees without putting them (or ourselves) at risk. The chimpanzees can reach out and groom our elbows or wrists (as you’ll see with Seana all the way at the end) and they can put their bodies up against the fencing so we can tickle or groom them, but we never cross the barrier of the fence. Their space is their space, period.

Elizabeth and Foxie:

Jackie and Jody:

Diana and Foxie:

JB and Missy:

Me (Sarah) with Burrito:

Ooops… we apparently need more pictures of our newest staff member, Debbie:

And here are just a few of our dedicated volunteer caregivers!

Deb W and Burrito:

Steph P and Jamie:

Seana B and Jamie:

Find us all on Facebook so we can get to know you too!

World Champs!

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Random fact about me: I am an obsessive St. Louis Cardinals fan, and I was beside myself when they won the World Series this year. This is a little belated, but we have a fabulous volunteer named Laura who made some awesome enrichment for the chimps to celebrate the Cards today! Gotta take inspiration for enrichment ideas when ever we can get them, right? Laura made shirts and posters and printed out pictures of her favorite player, David Freese:

The chimps were probably most excited about the pomegranate forage, but I was pretty pleased to see Jody celebrating catcher Yadier Molina (#4). Go Cards!

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

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We’re planning the menu for Thursday’s dinner! It’ll definitely include Field Roast deliciousness. If you’d like to help sponsor the feast, please donate now. We’ll thank you in the blog post on Thursday and will email the first 5 donors a special photo of the party.  And if you’d like to share your ideas on what they should have, comment below (remember that the chimps don’t have refined sugar or much salt, and other than their chow, they don’t have animal products).

Here’s Annie enjoying her Field Roast and mashed potatoes over the holidays last year:

In other news (and what you can do)…

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There is a whole lot going on in the world of chimps right now! Here are a few highlights for your further reading, education, and advocacy:

Scientific American just published an editorial calling for an end to biomedical experimentation on chimpanzees. The editors reference a study conducted in part here at CSNW demonstrating that chimpanzees experience signs of post traumatic stress disorder and anxiety disorder, among other things, after being used as test subjects.

The Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act (S. 810/HR.1513) , which CSNW formally supports, and introduced in the Senate by our very own Senator Maria Cantwell, would phase out the use of chimpanzees in invasive testing over three years. If you think that’s a good idea, be sure to lend your voice to the cause.

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is re-considering the issue of the chimpanzee “split listing” under the Endangered Species Act. There’s a complex history here, but the short version is that there is a special rule in effect which completely excludes captive chimpanzees from any protection under the Endangered Species Act. The record behind that decision is questionable at best. Reclassifying captive chimpanzees as endangered would eliminate the special rule and go a long way toward adding protection for our captive chimpanzee friends. The USFWS has called for public comment on this – you can submit your comments here.

As we’ve written about before, a group of chimpanzees living in Alamogordo, NM were slated by the federal government to move from their facility (where no research was being conducted) back into research. Although 14 chimpanzees had already been moved, including Jody’s son Levi, the remainder of the group were given a temporary reprieve after public outcry and pending the outcome of further federal investigation.

At the request of the National Institutes of Health, the Institute of Medicine formed a committee charged with coming up with a report on whether chimpanzees are or will be necessary for biomedical research.  The committee is accepting ongoing public comment here, and is expected to issue its report by the end of this year. The Washington Post did a write up after the most recent meeting of the committee. One of the most compelling pieces of information that came out of the last meeting? The FDA has a policy not to request data from chimpanzee studies, and it discourages submission of such data.

Finally (for now) a petition submitted to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (under the USDA) seeks an investigation into the decision that sent Levi and his 13 companions back into research.

There are so many balls in the air right now, it really does feel like the tides are turning. Please share your voice where you can!

 

More Young’s Hill Progress

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The welders (and JB) have been hard at work yesterday and today putting in the raceway and gate to Young’s Hill. It feels just a little more real now that all the steel is coming together! The red steel in the first picture below is the tunnel that will connect the current outdoor area (greenhouse) to Young’s Hill. The second picture is the vehicle access gate. We’re so excited!

 

1095

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Here’s a special message that CSNW Board Member Bruce Wagman shared with the team today.

1095. That’s how many days it’s been since the Seven brought us all together. We silly humans mark things in years and that’s a good thing for some purposes, but probably for our Cle Elum nonhuman family, the diurnal cycle is more of a celebration, and each day of liberation, improvement, as much justice as possible, companionship, hope, love and sanctuary has hopefully been an anniversary. So for us it’s just our third, but we always knew they were smarter and for them it’s the 1095th anniversary since Keith and J.B. let them out of that truck and onto home sweet home.

So obviously since I am as silly a human as any, I am writing to wish us a happy third anniversary, and them a happy 1095th, and while I suppose I could Facebook them with this message as well I’ll just take this rare moment of emotion to just thank each of you all for what you have contributed to help us all do for them as much as we can, and to continue to strive for more for them. It’s a proud proud day for us all, and I am truly blessed and honored to be a part of it.