Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

advocacy

Foxie and Choices

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We’ve written a lot about how one of the most important characteristics of a true sanctuary is giving chimpanzees the opportunity to make their own choices (You’ll find a search box on the right hand side of the blog – just scroll down a bit. Type in “choices” and several blog posts will appear).

J.B.’s post yesterday about all of the different things that the chimpanzees were doing in the morning is an illustration of how the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees have really embraced the freedom to make their own decisions about what to do.

Another hallmark of a true sanctuary is getting to know the chimpanzees as unique individuals and learning what they like, what they don’t like, and how to make their lives better on an individual basis. That’s really a lot of what our blog is all about, now that I think about it – we’re just inviting you to see this process.

Recently, I took a cue from Jackie and presented Foxie with the opportunity to choose among a bunch of her favorite things by bringing out the bin of trolls and other dolls and letting her indicate which ones she wanted. She seemed to really enjoy watching me pick the dolls out of the bin and set them up in front of her:

Foxie and her many dolls

 

We did this together for quite a while and she ended up choosing about 11 of the dolls (at one point attempting, unsuccessfully, to carry all of them at once).

Here’s the first doll she decided she needed to have:

foxie choosing dora

 

She started to nest with a few of her dolls and put her back up against the fencing to be groomed. One of the Dora dolls obliged, which made Foxie quite happy:

dora grooms foxie

 

Another very important mission of our sanctuary is to allow the seven chimpanzees in our care to serve as examples of the hundreds of chimpanzees who are still languishing in laboratories or in other terrible conditions. We want you to fall in love with Foxie, as we caregivers have, and to use that love to advocate for other chimpanzees in need.

Speaking of advocacy, please continue to share the petition to the NIH insisting on the release 110 chimpanzees to a true sanctuary. As I write this, we have 1,750 signatures to go before we reach our goal of 5,000.

You may have heard that an NIH spokesperson told NBC that the NIH had changed their tune and were now saying that all 110 chimpanzees would be going to Chimp Haven. This, however, was news to Chimp Haven, as you can read in their statement released yesterday. It’s now more important than ever that we keep the pressure on the NIH to permanently retire these chimpanzees from biomedical research and send them to Chimp Haven or another true sanctuary.

Take Action Tuesday: Chimpanzee populations in crisis

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Up until recently, our advocacy efforts have focused on apes in entertainment and biomedical research. However as part of Eyes on Apes, we want to help advocate for the plight of free-living apes, too. (And we’ll be featuring some guest blogs from free-living researchers in the coming months, too!) I read an article the other day about chimpanzees attacking humans after they encroached on the chimpanzees’ home. Some people were fearing that the chimpanzees were seeking revenge. I don’t necessarily think that is true (though I can never know for sure since I can’t read minds) but I do think that chimpanzees do not belong in a human world. And when humans involve themselves into a chimpanzees’ world, it is a sad story all around. Chimpanzees do not belong in captivity, they belong in Africa. But what has become of their home? Humans have torn down forests to log expensive woods. We have hunted chimpanzees and sold their meat on the black market, and baby chimpanzees have become orphaned. We have slashed and burned forest to make room for farming. We have mined for coltan in the deep rainforest, causing habitat destruction and allowing access for hunters just like the logging industry. Free-living populations are decreasing from all of these issues.

And what can we do? We can be conscious consumers. Don’t buy wood that comes from Africa—in the U.S. that is mostly teak and mahogany. Recycle old cell phones and laptops and anything with an LCD screen (which contains coltan). But what else can we do? Today, you can write a letter to congress asking them to make these issues that you care about a priority.

One day, I hope there will no longer be chimpanzees in captivity. I hope I will be out of a job because that would mean there would be no need for sanctuaries. Sadly, I don’t know that will happen in our lifetimes but I do think someday, people will stop exploiting chimpanzees for a cheap laugh or invasive research. And, I hope that at that same time, there will be thriving populations in Africa where they belong, and that humans will have reduced our impact so much so that chimpanzees can simply be chimpanzees—no humans involved.

Advocacy Program Logo Design Contest

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CSNW’s advocacy program, Primate Patrol, mainly focuses on raising public awareness about issues that chimpanzees and other primates face in the entertainment industry. We are starting to broaden our efforts and provide tools for people to help apes in need for a wider range of issues. You may have seen our regular advocacy posts called “Take Action Tuesday,” where we have posted information on how to take action for exploited apes. (Most recently we posted about this petition—sign it now if you haven’t already!)

As part of our plans to broaden the program we are looking for a new logo and design. We want to see what talented folks are out there, so we are having a logo design contest, open to anyone! Visit this page to find out contest details. The new program will be called Eyes on Apes. Click on the contest link to read the mission statement and help inspire your creative design! We’re hoping contestants can come up with a tagline, too. If you have art or graphic design skills, feel free to send us your mock ups to [email protected] and please share the contest page with your graphic design friends and family!

Beautiful Jamie

As a prize for the logo we love the most, we are awarding a beautiful 8×10 matted print of Jamie, as well as a $100 gift certificate to the CSNW store. Jamie was exploited by the entertainment industry and pet trade and then used in invasive biomedical testing before being rescued by CSNW just over 4 years ago. She is one of the smartest primates I’ve ever known and it is so sad to think of how miserable she must have been in her previous life. Captivity is never an ideal place for chimpanzees, but we hope through our advocacy efforts that individuals like Jamie will get to a sanctuary, too. So, in recognition of Jamie, the contest will go up until October 31 (her honorary birthday).

Take Action Tuesday: Sign our petition! Retire all 110 NIH chimps

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As we discussed last week, the National Institute of Health (NIH) recently announced that they are “retiring” 110 chimps from the New Iberia Research Center (NIRC) in Louisiana. Ten of those chimpanzees are going to Chimp Haven, a sanctuary not far from NIRC. The other 100? They are going to Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio. Though they say they won’t be used in any more invasive testing, this isn’t a true “retirement.” The chimpanzees should be going to a sanctuary like Chimp Haven or the other six members of the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance (NAPSA).

Please sign our petition to the NIH and help give these 100 chimps a retirement in a true sanctuary. Then spread the petition by sending it to your contacts via email and posting on Facebook, Twitter and other social media. Show the NIH that the public cares about chimpanzees and that we insist former biomedical chimpanzees go to true sanctuaries.

Take Action Tuesday: Help out chimps in entertainment

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Though the nation’s top ad agencies as well as several companies have pledged to never use great apes in commercials because of public outcry, there are still chimpanzees being actively used in entertainment, forced to perform for a cheap laugh. Last November, a TV show on Nick Jr. called the Fresh Beat Band featured an episode with two young chimpanzees, dressed in human clothes, side-by-side with humans. Since this show is geared toward children, it could potentially influence young minds to believe that having a chimpanzee as a pet in a human household is an acceptable—and even fun—thing to do. Portraying chimpanzees as cute and cuddly attractions seriously misinforms the public about their true nature. As you may remember from a few years ago, Travis, a “pet” chimpanzee, brutally mauled a woman—which was not surprising for those who are chimpanzee experts and know that they should not live with humans due to their natural aggressive behavior. Very recently, reports came from Japan about an entertainment chimpanzee who attacked a woman. Chimpanzees simply do not belong in a human environment! Since this episode of the Fresh Beat Band is still running on Nick Jr., it is still influencing children into thinking pet ownership is OK. Please write to the producer to ask them to pull the episode from rotation and pledge to never work with apes again.

Sample letter to write to the producer of the Fresh Beat Band: [email protected]

I recently became aware that last November, you aired an episode of the Fresh Beat Band with young chimpanzees dressed in human clothing, and that the episode is still airing. You should know that great apes 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.

Showing a chimpanzee side-by-side with humans sends the message that they are cute and cuddly attractions, and especially since your show is targeted toward children, your audience is easily influenced by what you portray. Chimpanzees do not make good pets as they should be with their mothers when they’re young, and when they are older they become very strong and are potentially violent. Surely you have heard about recent chimp attacks in the news? This episode portrays chimpanzees in a human environment, making it seem like pet ownership is OK when it is not.

Please make the compassionate decision to stop re-running the episode called “Chimps in Charge,” and please consider to never exploit great apes for entertainment purposes again. Thank you for your consideration of my comments on this urgent matter.

Live action TV shows and films that feature entertainment chimpanzees are not the only forms of media that can have an influence on public perception—print ads are just as influential. Tieks, a popular shoe company, has several pictures from a photo shoot done with an infant chimpanzee a couple years ago posted on their Facebook page. The images can potentially mislead people into thinking that chimpanzees dressed up in clothes, “smiling,” and being side-by-side with humans is funny. Unfortunately, the “smile” we see on greeting cards as well as in television shows, advertisements, and movies is not funny at all—it’s a fear response. Please ask Tieks to take the photos of a young chimpanzee off their Facebook page, and encourage them to make a pledge to never use chimpanzees in future marketing campaigns.

Sample letter to write to Tieks shoe company: [email protected]

I was shocked and disappointed to hear that there are images on your Facebook page of a chimpanzee dressed in human clothes and “smiling” with their top teeth. In reality, that is a “fear grimace”—chimpanzees make this face when they are afraid, which indicates that this chimpanzees has likely been threatened or abused during their training.

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 photos currently posted on your Facebook page. They are scattered throughout several of your albums. I also hope that you will commit to never using images that exploit great apes for promotion purposes again. Thank you for your consideration of my comments on this urgent matter, and I look forward to your response.

**If you send a letter to the Fresh Beat Band producer and/or Tieks, please BCC [email protected] for tracking purposes. Thank you!

Take Action Tuesday: Time is running out for H.R. 1513/S. 810

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Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest supports the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act. Watch this newscast from PCRM and, if you agree, Take Action. PCRM has a link at the bottom of the video to find a form you can use to contact your representatives to share your opinion.

Already written your letter? Share this post with everyone you know. Post it on Facebook, Twitter, and send via e-mail. Get the word out that GAPCSA needs more support to move forward in the current session of congress. If this bill passes, it would release all federally owned chimpanzees to sanctuaries. After going through invasive medical testing (which is mostly unnecessary according to the Institute of Medicine) they deserve to be retired. Just see what sanctuary life can do for chimpanzees like Negra.

Here are a few bullet points that you can include in your letter to congress:

  • Chimpanzees actively used in biomedical research are routinely tested on—undergoing surgeries, infected with deadly viruses, and injected with vaccines. They are very intelligent and suffer from immense psychological distress due to lack of proper socialization, separation from their mothers when infants, and absence of mental stimulation.
  • Evidence has shown that although chimpanzees are indeed genetically very similar to humans, they are a poor research model for many diseases due to basic molecular differences between the two species. For instance, chimpanzees infected with HIV do not acquire AIDS, which makes them a poor medical model for finding an HIV/AIDS vaccine for humans.
  • Many chimpanzees are currently warehoused and are not actively being used in testing, but it is still costing taxpayers millions of dollars to house them. Retiring them to sanctuaries will not only provide higher quality living conditions and care, but it will save taxpayer money.

 

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).