As we’ve mentioned in other posts, Negra has been the most hesitant to fully embrace Young’s Hill, but today she was the first one out of the raceway and sat for quite a long time on the log bridge enjoying the breakfast lettuce forage.
Laboratory Life
At Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, we made a conscious decision to focus on sharing the personalities of the chimpanzees with everyone we could – to show who they are and the steps they are taking to recover from their past lives as biomedical research subjects.
There are more happy, goofy, playful, funny moments in a day at the sanctuary than we could possibly share with everyone. We treasure each of these moments and are so thankful to everyone who has helped us to create a place where the Cle Elum Seven can find joy.
But we know that there are nearly 1,000 other chimpanzees still in biomedical research within the United States who deserve the same opportunity – the chance to live out their lives in a legitimate sanctuary where they can begin to experience happiness. Seeing lists of numbers or names from labs that represent chimpanzees is a haunting experience. Each number is a chimpanzee full of personality just like Burrito, Negra, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy and Annie, and some of those chimpanzees are relatives of the seven – sons, daughters and cousins.
Last week we sent out an e-newsletter about 110 chimpanzees that the government claimed were being retired, though 100 of them are slated to move to another laboratory, not a sanctuary.
For more on this issue, I urge you to take a few moments and read this article published yesterday by Craig Maslow of the Houston Press. After reading it, you will want to want to take some sort of tangible action. A couple of ideas for action are provided here by Animal Protection of New Mexico.
It also happens to be National Primate Liberation Week next week. If you live in the Seattle area, you can participate in events that are being organized by Seattle’s Northwest Animal Rights Network (NARN), Action for Animals, and the Seattle Animal Defense League. Check the NARN calendar for details on all local events. There are no chimpanzees being used in biomedical testing in the state of Washington, but there are countless monkeys used by the University of Washington and by private laboratories. For a list of primate liberation week events happening across the country, check the Stop Animal Experimentation Now! website.
There are definite signs that the end of chimpanzee biomedical research in the United States is coming to an end, particularly with the progress on the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act, but we must keep the pressure up and make sure that the last of the chimpanzees in laboratories are sent to legitimate sanctuaries, and we must advocate for the tens of thousands of non-chimpanzee primates who will never know life outside of a laboratory cage.
Annie and Missy Best Friends
Supporter Annie Norris has a best friend named Missy and was excited to learn that Annie and Missy of the Cle Elum Seven are also best friends. She said it was okay for us to share this little page she made of the BFFs. I took it a step further and dug up some other photos of the chimp best friends. Do you know any Annie & Missy best friends?
Whole Lotta Shakin’
Missy and Foxie shaking things and shaking themselves. Just watch:
Objects of Desire
First of all, I would like to direct your attention to the right side of this page. If you scroll down, past the announcements and look just past the e-newsletter sign-up, you will see a newly added feature to our blog! You can now plug your email address into that box over the “subscribe” button, click “subscribe,” then check your email. You should receive a notice from wordpress.com very quickly (check your spam folder if it doesn’t show up in a few minutes), then you just follow the directions in that email and, voila – you’ll receive blog posts by email as soon as they are posted! And there’s a button right at the bottom of the email when you get a blog post to click in order to comment on the post. It’s pretty cool. You should try it out.
Now, I’d like to direct your attention to Jamie…
Jamie’s love of boots shows no signs of fading. As we’ve mentioned before, her favorite pair switches frequently. Because I’ve had a cold, I haven’t been in the chimp house much in the last couple of weeks, so I wasn’t sure which pair were at the top of her favorite list. When I saw the tall wooden heel of a new pair, I suspected those were her current loves. I was correct, as you can see by the photos below:
In depth story from KOMO
KOMO News (ABC Channel 4 in Seattle) has shared a longer, in depth video and interviews about the Taylor Bridge Fire at the sanctuary. They put the video on their website here.
You can watch it below and you can email KOMO to thank them for sharing the original story at this address: [email protected]
KOMO 4 News Story
Here’s the link to the Seattle KOMO 4 News story that aired tonight: http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Chimpanzees-survive-close-call-with-Cle-Elum-wildfire-168549526.html
Eric Johnson and videographer Eric Jensen did a great job with this story and we were so glad to have them out again today.
I should admit that J.B. dreamed up and built Young’s Hill. I did encourage him… and I helped by setting a few fence posts, along with dozens of volunteers. And the sanctuary itself was started by Keith LaChappelle and a team of people who came together to make it possible.
Thanks to everyone for continuing to support the journey of the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees. Everyone who has supported us over the years is part of the sanctuary – we are thankful to you all and now also to the firefighters who did, indeed, protect the dream.
We were thrilled to see Foxie scale that post today and even more thrilled that her accomplishment made it on TV! Every day there’s some new step that the chimps take or new discovery that they make – that’s what sanctuary is all about.
