Have you heard about Brandon Wood? He is one of the most active chimpanzee advocates, always working tirelessly to help chimps through petitions, fundraisers, and tabling events. Did I mention he’s just 12 years old? He’s an inspiration! His latest project is a petition to a drug company Merck, a private biomedical testing lab, to stop biomedical testing on chimpanzees. Though the National Institutes of Health is moving toward retiring government-funded chimps in research, there are still many chimps in privately-funded labs. Lend Brandon a hand and help the chimps today by signing his petition! And don’t forget to share it with your friends, too.
brandon wood
Brandon Wood’s Fundraising for Chimps
You may recognize the name Brandon Wood or Make a Chimp Smile from previous posts or from other organizations. He’s truly an inspiration to me and to anyone who knows about him.
Brandon is always busy helping chimpanzees. Recently he’s been busy sending out letters to representatives and the president, encouraging them to support the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act. And now he’s doing a fundraiser for the Cle Elum Seven through his Etsy shop. He has really cool “chimp tags” and earth-friendly tote bags for sale, with proceeds going to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.
Show your support of Brandon and his work to help chimpanzees by shopping in the Make a Chimp Smile Etsy store and following his blog at makeachimpsmile.blogspot.com.
Here’s a photo of Brandon that I borrowed from his blog. He’s wearing and holding the chimp tags that he made to support great apes:
Thank you for all you do, Brandon!
Levi and Brandon Wood’s video
Today, Jody’s son Levi turns 27. He has been a research subject his entire life. The note in Jody’s file for this day twenty-seven years ago simply says, “Delivered healthy infant male #88 – removed & taken to nursery.” If she got a glimpse of Levi that day, it was probably the last time Jody saw her son.
Six weeks later, an adult male chimpanzee was transferred into Jody’s cage in the hopes of “breeding” her again.
Levi was among the unlucky group of chimpanzees who have already been moved from the Alamogordo Primate Facility to the Southwest National Primate Research Center in San Antonio, Texas.
Learn more about the transfer of the Alamogordo chimps on Animal Protection of New Mexico’s FAQ page and learn how to help here: RetireTheChimps.org.
Also, for Jody and Levi, please support the Great Ape Protection Act, which would permanently retire all chimpanzees currently supported by the federal government and would ban the use of great apes in invasive biomedical research. Visit the HSUS TAKE ACTION link to contact your reps.
For inspiration, watch 10-year-old Brandon Wood’s video below. Brandon is one of the most active chimpanzee advocates out there. The dedication of someone so young is remarkable. You can follow Brandon through his blog, his Facebook page or on Twitter. Visit his sites and thank him for working so hard for chimpanzees.
Kids helping chimpanzees
Chimpanzees are lucky to have some very dedicated young people who are speaking out on their behalf. Nine year old Brandon Wood recently sent the Cle Elum Seven a care package all the way from Florida. Not just any care package, though – the most colorful care package we’ve ever received!
Brandon also recently sent a package to our chimpanzee friends at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute and has been raising money for Save the Chimps. It’s inspiring and uplifting to see such dedication and caring in someone so young. Please visit Brandon’s blog to learn more about him and his work to make the world a better place: http://makeachimpsmile.blogspot.com/ and follow him on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Makeachimpsmile. Thanks, Brandon!