It’s snowing right now at the sanctuary, but this morning the sun was out for a bit and five of the chimps were hanging out on Young’s Hill. JB got some photos of Burrito giving himself a back massage on top of the platform:
Take Action Tuesday: Share our petition!
Have you signed the petition to help retire the 110 NIH chimps that are slated for relocation from New Iberia Research Center to Texas Biomedical Research Institute? Though they are no longer going to be used in any invasive research, they should be able to live out the rest of their lives in a sanctuary where they can receive lifetime quality care. Those 110 chimpanzees deserve the same retirement that the Cle Elum Seven now have after decades in labs. Something that I always find haunting are the pictures of the chimps before they came to CSNW or when they first arrived, compared to just a few months in a sanctuary and especially after a few years. Look at this before and after comparison of Jamie, who is also in the photo below. For others like her, please sign the petition and if you have already, share it with your friends!
Chimp Haven is hoping to raise funds in order to take those 110 chimpanzees. They need to add housing space and are running a drive to get donations for doing so. When you share the petition, let your family and friends also know here is how you can help build a better home for these deserving chimpanzees: The Road to Chimp Haven. Remember, every signature helps!
Take Action Tuesday: Decision in Las Vegas tomorrow
Recently, Converse shoes had a poster in the UK subways featuring a fear-grimacing chimpanzee. After hearing from concerned advocates, they pulled the ads! And, they agreed to never use primates in promotions again. This great news demonstrates that letter writing really is very powerful, and every letter counts.
Since your letters make a difference for our chimpanzee friends, please take a minute to write a letter to the Clark County commissioners to urge them to deny Mike Casey’s permit application to continue to house his chimps in a residential neighborhood in Las Vegas. If you have already written a letter, please share the alert! You can use the sample letter as an example, or use your own words. Be sure to emphasize that this is not only a public safety concern, but it also the right thing to do. Chimpanzees don’t belong in back yards, at birthday parties, at car dealer openings, or on film sets. Captive chimpanzees suffer in these situations, and they belong in sanctuaries that can meet their needs. They get better when they get to a sanctuary (see Jamie below for proof of that). There is sanctuary space available for these chimps.
Here are just two examples of the way chimpanzees are affected by being in Mike Casey’s life:
- Travis, born at Mike Casey’s former facility in Missouri and sold as a “pet” to a woman in suburban Connecticut, escaped from his owner, mauled a woman, and died after being stabbed by his owner with a butcher knife and then shot by police.
- A trainer hit a chimpanzee on the German set of the movie Speed Racer (a production for which Mike Casey’s company was responsible) in front of an “animal welfare” monitor. You can read the full review at AHAfilm.org (and look for ratings and reviews – they don’t make it easy to link to specific reviews!).
The hearing is tomorrow – so don’t wait, write your letter today!
And for a reminder of what sanctuary can do, take Jamie (a former “entertainer”). Here she was in June 2008, shortly after her arrival:
And here she is now:
Speak up on behalf of Jamie and all the chimpanzees out there who still need our help.
Today’s hill photos
Burrito foraging:
Jody munching on some lettuce:
Burrito, Annie, Jamie, Missy:
Guess who?
Annie, Jamie, Jody (with a nice relaxed face)
Negra chose to look out on the valley from the comfort of her nest inside:
Take Action Tuesday: Stop Casey from continuing to house chimps
Last week in Las Vegas, Clark County held a hearing about whether Mike Casey should be granted a permit to continue to house his exotic animals in an RV in his backyard. Casey is the person responsible for breeding and selling Travis, the chimpanzee who mauled Charla Nash in Connecticut in 2009.
Chimpanzees, as we know, should be with their mothers when they are young. Though no chimpanzee should have to live in captivity, since they can’t be returned to the wild they should live in a sanctuary where their social, psychological, and physical needs can be met. And, of course, no chimpanzee should ever be forced to perform. Casey has bred chimpanzees like Travis who have become pets or used by the entertainment industry.
Casey has a record of abuse. He has reportedly beaten his chimps with his fists, thrown hot water on them, and hit them with a rod.
Chimpanzees are wild animals, and they can and will bite. It is within their nature to be violently aggressive, even toward their closest friends. As we know in the case of Travis, humans are simply not built to take the aggression that chimps can inflict on others. Housing chimpanzees so close to human homes is dangerous.
Despite these issues, Casey made his case to the Enterprise Town Advisory Board, and the permit request is moving forward to the County Commission on November 21st. Act now and suggest that the county deny his request. Ask that the chimpanzees be sent to a reputable sanctuary where they belong. You can use the sample letter below or write one of your own. Send it to County Commission District G at [email protected] and encourage your friends to write, also!
Sample letter to Clark County Commissioners:
I am greatly concerned about James “Mike” Casey’s permit application to house chimpanzees on his property. This is a danger to the nearby residents. Chimpanzees have been known to escape and attack humans, causing severe injuries. One infamous case is of Travis, one of the chimpanzees Casey bred, who was shot after he attacked his neighbor and nearly ripped her face off.
In addition to public safety concerns, the welfare of these individual chimpanzees is also at stake. Casey has a history of animal abuse. The chimpanzees are housed in small, reportedly unsanitary conditions. They should be where their physical, psychological, and social needs can be met. A reputable sanctuary would dedicate resources to ensuring quality lifetime care for these chimpanzees. It is what they deserve.
I hope the Commission will choose to make the compassionate and safe decision to deny the permit to keep these chimpanzees in a residential neighborhood. Thank you for your consideration of my comments.
**If you send an email, please don’t forget to BCC [email protected] for tracking purposes**
Foxie mid-yawn
I guess yesterday’s Jamie-ween party was just so exhausting, Foxie couldn’t help but take a big yawn. Here she is holding the Dora doll donated by Bailey as mentioned in yesterday’s blog.
Take Action Tuesday: Washoe and captive chimps
Today marks five years since Washoe, the first nonhuman to use a human language, passed away in Ellensburg (just 25 minutes from Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest where the Cle Elum Seven live). Like Negra, Annie, and possibly Jody, Washoe was captured from Africa. She was supposed to be used in the space program, but when that didn’t work out, she was instead the center of a language project. Now we know that captivity is never a good place for chimpanzees. When Washoe became too strong to handle, she had to live in a cage for the rest of her years. Sadly, that is the fate of any captive chimpanzee—those living as pets or used in entertainment will eventually have to be imprisoned for a crime they didn’t commit because they simply are not meant to live in a human world. Biomedical chimpanzees are already in cages, some no bigger than a coat closet.
I first started working with Washoe and her family in 2005 as a college student. She taught me humility and to take everyone on their own terms, and she blurred the line between animals and humans. The way I see the world and my place in it has definitely changed forever—it was because of her that I realized how amazing these beings are and became a chimpanzee advocate. I met the Cle Elum Seven shortly after they came to CSNW in 2008, and was moved at how resilient and forgiving they were after everything they’ve been through. Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy, and Negra have been an inspiration. They have been through so much, yet they still find time to laugh and play. They can finally walk outside with sun overhead and grass under their feet—something we definitely take for granted. I can’t imagine living my entire life inside bars and I am so proud of the Cle Elum Seven for how brave they have become in the last four years. I know it is our duty to give them and all other captive chimps a good life. We took them from their natural and rightful environment from the forests of Africa, stuck them in cages, bred them, and exploited them for a cheap laugh or invasive research, all without regard to how they are just like you or me. They are beings who deserve to be taken on their terms, treated as equals—not forced to perform on TV or be injected with viruses because of humans believing they are superior.
Let’s speak up for captive chimps. Let’s release them from biomedical research. Let’s get companies and productions to stop using chimpanzees in their advertisements or movies. Since we can never return them to Africa, let’s at least give them a better life in a sanctuary where they can be taken on their terms, treated not as lesser beings but where their needs are of the utmost importance.
Help 100 chimpanzees get to a sanctuary by signing this petition—we need 1,250 more signatures to reach our goal of 5000! Write a letter to this TV show that teaches kids it’s OK to have a pet chimp. And don’t forget to join our Take Action: Eyes on Apes list to stay up-to-date on issues and action alerts!
