Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Debbie

Some good news + cute Foxie

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If you aren’t subscribed to the Take Action newsletter through Eyes on Apes, you may not have seen yet that we’ve had a victory! Two days ago I sent out an action alert regarding a Great Clips commercial with a chimpanzee, and just a day later Great Clips made a statement to pledge not to use apes in future advertising, and said they were working on pulling the ad. This is all thanks to letters from you guys, so congrats! Please forward this victory on to friends and get them to join you in speaking up for apes in need.

As if that good news wasn’t enough happiness for the day, I thought I’d share some pictures of Foxie eating some snow with juice added to it. She’s pretty cute. I think she can put a smile on anyone’s face.

web Foxie snow in mouth playroom PR IMG_1974

web Foxie snow in mouth playroom PR IMG_1973

web Foxie snow in mouth playroom PR IMG_1966

Take Action Tuesday: Great Clips commercial

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As we’ve mentioned before, despite a growing public awareness about the plight of chimpanzees in entertainment, they are still being exploited for a cheap laugh. Recently, Great Clips (a nationwide hair salon franchise) aired a commercial launching their new feature, “Clip Notes” with a chimpanzee toward the end. The chimpanzee is seen exhibiting a “fear grimace” – a sign that they were likely beaten or abused prior to the commercial’s production.

great clips
Screenshot of Great Clips’ new ad on YouTube

Please write to Great Clips to ask them to pull the commercial from the air and pledge to never work with apes again.

Sample Letter to Great Clips:
[email protected], CEO

Dear Ms. Olsen:

I was shocked and disappointed to hear that Great Clips has a commercial that features a young chimpanzee. You should know that chimpanzees used in entertainment are torn away from their mothers as infants, often repeatedly beaten during training, and then discarded when they become too strong to be managed.

Using a chimpanzee for a cheap laugh sends the message that these amazing beings are simply props. Surely you are aware that chimpanzees are endangered species in critical need of protection? You are exploiting chimpanzees for your own profits and this is an unacceptable business practice.

Please make the compassionate decision to remove the chimpanzee from your commercial, and please consider to never exploit great apes for entertainment purposes again. Thank you for your consideration of my comments on this urgent matter.

You may also submit your comments to their Facebook page, or post Tweets that express your concern, such as: @GreatClips I was disappointed to see a chimp in your ad for #clipnotes. Please remove the ad! www.chimpsnw.org

**If you send a letter, please BCC [email protected] for tracking purposes. Thank you!

Icicles

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The chimpanzees really love snow, which is great because it just keeps falling and they never get sick of it! Check out the newsletter that was sent out today that also includes a video of the chimps enjoying snow.

Anyway, with snow comes icicles. Today J.B. noticed that there were quite a few on the building, and the sun is out now so they are melting fast.

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I knocked down a few and passed them out to the chimps, but found that it was pretty tricky to pass them out AND get photos before either the chimps ran off to a hard-to-see spot with their icicle, or the icicles melted. My solution: I placed some icicles delicately on the caging so the chimpanzees would have to pull them through on their own. Missy was the first to come over, and she grabbed most of them before they melted. The other chimps were happily munching away on the ones I passed out earlier.

web missy pull icicle through caging PR IMG_1600

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I know you can’t see her whole face in the picture below, but I just love how you can see her drooped lip, which means she’s relaxed and happy.

web missy pull icicle through caging relaxed face PR IMG_1602

web missy eat icicle PR IMG_1607

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Snow

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With winter at the sanctuary comes snow, though this year there really hasn’t been much so far. I don’t want to jinx it, but we have only had a few days of snow fall and not much has accumulated at all. But fresh snow is a delicacy for chimpanzees! A few days ago after one of the snow falls, Diana, JB, and volunteers Connie and Lynn collected a some snow and incorporated it into a forage for the chimps. We have been lucky so far to have some really nice days, but even on the colder days we make the best of what nature hands us. I still will never forget when the chimpanzees had their first snow experience, for some probably the first time in their lives! Thankfully even though this is the fifth winter for the Cle Elum Seven, they still get excited about snow and will food grunt happily to get to taste some. Here’s some pictures from the forage I mentioned:

Annie (left) & Jody:

web jody annie sit eat forage snow vegetables pr pool _MG_0535

Jody:

web jody eat snow pr food enrichment barn doors _MG_0525

 

And here’s one of Foxie on Young’s Hill:

web Foxie walk snow in mouth Dora in hand Young's Hill YH IMG_0642

Take Action Tuesday: Gorilla populations

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Since Eyes on Apes has broadened its focus to include all great apes, I thought I would share some information about gorillas. There are four different sub species of gorilla: the Mountain gorilla, the Western Lowland gorilla, the Eastern Lowland gorilla (also known as the Grauer’s gorilla), and the Cross River gorilla. All sub species are endangered, but the Cross River and Mountain gorillas have the smallest populations, with numbers in just the hundreds. The Mountain gorillas are the sub species that were studied by the famed primatologist Dian Fossey, who observed gorillas in the Virunga Mountains before her tragic murder in 1985. Fossey was the Jane Goodall of the gorilla world. Recently, some good news came out of the protected areas surrounding the Mountain gorillas’ habitat: their population is rising! New census numbers reveal that populations have increased by nearly 100 gorillas since the last census, bringing the total number of Mountain gorillas to 880. This shows that the protection surrounding the forest and conservation efforts are working!

Though this is good news for one sub species of gorilla, the other three in the more lowland areas are in greater danger of human encroachment. As I mentioned in a post about the plight free-living chimpanzees, humans have logged for expensive woods in the middle of the African rainforest, creating logging roads that make it easier for hunters to kill the apes and sell their meat on the black market for the bushmeat trade. Coltan mining is another huge threat to gorilla habitat (coltan is the material used in LCD screens). The easiest way to take action for the gorillas in these areas besides donating to a conservation organization is to be a conscious consumer. Just like I mentioned with the plight of free-living orangutans, be aware of where your products you are purchasing are coming from. Recycle products with an LCD screen when you upgrade to a new device, or even if is broken – the parts can still be recycled. CSNW can even help you recycle your old cell phones!

Photo courtesy of the International Gorilla Conservation Programme’s Facebook page