Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Take Action Tuesday: Stop Casey from continuing to house chimps

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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.

Angel showing a fear grimace (a facial expression in chimpanzees that indicates fear or abuse). Angel was in a training facility and was leased out for entertainment---not unlike the lives of the chimps bred by Mike Casey.
Angel, pictured here, was at a training facility for chimps leased out for entertainment purposes—TV ads, shows, kids’ parties. (Not unlike the lives of chimps bred by Mike Casey). Here she is showing a fear grimace, simply at the sight of the camera. This facial expression for chimpanzees indicates fear or abuse. After serving several years as an “actor,” Angel was luckily rescued by the Center for Great Apes.

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

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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

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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!

 

Negra approaches her cabin

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As J.B. mentioned in yesterday’s blog, Jackie and I caught Negra approaching her new cabin. Unfortunately I didn’t have our camera on me and didn’t want to miss the shot—so this was taken on my phone. I apologize that it is not the best quality and the chimps are pretty small. But, it is super awesome to see Negra sizing up her cabin and getting reassurance from Foxie and Jody. At one point all seven chimps were in the shot. I thought that was also super awesome so I took a screen shot and labeled all the chimps so you can see them all at once.

I can’t wait until Negra makes it all the way inside the cabin!

 

Take Action Tuesday: How orangutans are affected by the food and personal care products we buy

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Last week we discussed issues that face free-living chimpanzees (and also the other two African apes, gorillas and bonobos). Today I want to take action on a hot topic: palm oil. Free-living orangutan populations are only found on the small islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Since that climate is also really great for palm plantations, which produce palm oil, much of the orangutan habitat has been ripped apart for these plantations. Palm oil is found in almost everything these days—a lot of our food is full of it as well as bath and body products. If the average American opened their cupboards I would guess the majority of the products they have contain palm oil. Watch this great episode of NBC’s Rock Center that discusses the issue in depth.

What can we do? It’s pretty hard to avoid palm oil, but read the labels and choose products that don’t have palm oil over others that do. As the Rock Center article and video mention, the one section of forest known as Tripa has had one company’s permit revoked after an investigation began about the illegal slash and burn agriculture. However, there are still other companies operating in Tripa. Sign this petition to put pressure on the Indonesian government to Save Tripa and the orangutans that live there!

And, since we all really love our vegan butter (which usually contains palm oil), Diana and JB looked up some alternate butter recipes so we could start reducing the amount of palm oil we buy. After doing a small taste test, this is the one that staff decided we liked the best, however we used guar gum instead of xantham powder, and added extra salt.

photo courtesy of The Orangutan Project’s Facebook page

“Oh no!” Laundry basket keep away

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Normally we don’t give the chimps laundry baskets, not because they are unsafe (because they aren’t) but because we need them to do all the laundry, to dry all the washed toys, and to have a spot for the day’s enrichment. So, we reserve them for human use only, and the chimps understand that. If they ever get their hands on something they “aren’t supposed to have,” they think it’s pretty funny. Especially Foxie:

 

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.