Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Hope to see some regular supporters and make some new friends at the Sunday, February 28th in store events at LUSH Westlake and LUSH Bellevue. See LUSH’s flyer below for details.
If you can’t make it out, you can always support LUSH and their charity pot program by buying through their online store.
Diana and I took some photos this afternoon while the chimps enjoyed a lunch forage outside. It was great to see Burrito enjoying the sunshine.
Negra stuffed as many onions in her mouth as she could and headed back to the play room.
Jamie went after the brussels sprouts, but apperantly not before contemplating them first.
She also spent some time dipping her onions in buckets of water, and then pouring the water from one container into another. This is typical Jamie. She has such an active mind, and she will often make projects for herself to keep busy.
A couple of days ago, I added a new feature to the Chimp Sanctuary Supporters network. It’s a feature that allows members to post links to news stories (or really anything). You can also add your own comment along with the link. I think it will be a nice way for us all to share stories about what sanctuaries are doing and anything that we come across about chimpanzees that we’d like to share with others. Check out Chimp Sanctuary Supporters and click the “News Share” tab to post.
LUSH – Fresh Handmade Cosmetics – is currently featuring Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest as one of their Charity Pot partners. This means that our information appears on the lid of some of the charity pots sold in their retail stores and through their online store.
Thanks to LUSH’s support, we will be replacing two caged windows with chimpanzee-proof glass.
We will do this at the same time as the installation of the window paid for by blog readers Anna K., Denice, Jill K., Julie H., Gayle B., Theresa, Jeani, Candy, Kathy B., Leslie S., Sue and Jack, Stephanie P., Steph and Kurt, Donna A. and Barb in Ohio (big thanks to Anna for initiating the blog fundraising drive for the window).
So the chimps will have three new windows to look out of from the playroom this summer!!
The Westlake and Bellevue LUSH stores will be having in-store events to introduce their customers to the sanctuary on Sunday, February 28th. Stay tuned for more details. And THANK YOU LUSH!
One year ago today Travis, a “pet” chimpanzee in Connecticut mauled a woman named Charla Nash and was later fatally shot by police. It was a tragedy that J.B. eloquently wrote about in this blog post: The True Nature of Chimpanzees.
Just a few days ago, a volunteer at a facility in Florida was attacked by a young chimpanzee. Best known as Chimp Farm, the facility operated as a roadside attraction for decades and was famous for chimpanzees trained to box with humans. Chimp Farm was shut down by the USDA in 1999. After making improvements to the housing for the animals, and putting the days of boxing chimpanzees behind them, they reopened a few years ago as Suncoast Primate Sanctuary. Though it’s difficult to parse out the facts from all of the media coverage about the attack, it does seem clear that the chimpanzee, Shawn, escaped her enclosure because those working that day, including the woman who was attacked, did not properly secure and double check the enclosure. In a statement to the press, the volunteer stressed how important it is to follow proper procedure so that escapes do not occur due to human error.
It can be frustrating that these are the stories about chimpanzees that seem to catch the attention of the major media, while there are so many positive stories out there. Chimpanzees are being migrated from a former laboratory to the Save the Chimps sanctuary islands. The Center of Great Apes is expanding to rescue more chimpanzees. And Foxie at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest is rubbing her toes together and kissing a troll doll as construction is completed on the chimps “greenhouse.” But we can try to take advantage of the brief and sensationalized focus on chimp attacks to educate others.
The bottom line is that chimpanzees really do not belong in captivity. That is where the tragedy begins. At CSNW we do our best to provide the chimpanzees with a rich and varied life, but it’s not the life they should be living. The deserve to be swinging from the trees, traveling miles foraging for food, living in large social groups, and making nests out of branches. For so many reasons, they can’t live in the wild, so we’ll continue to provide them the best care possible. And we will always keep in mind J.B.’s words: “if we truly love them [chimpanzees], we need to treat them with the respect they deserve, and that includes respect for their complex nature….they are not meant for our world, any more than we are meant for theirs.”
The chimp’s had a fantastic Valentine’s Day party! Two of our supporters, Robbi and Dick Brown, brought TONS of fabulous new toys including books, stuffed animals, a plastic shopping cart, new troll dolls, scarves, socks, and a red feather boa. We filled gift bags of various new toys and wrapped the rest in red wrapping paper. Stephanie Perciful, our morning volunteer, brought tons of goodies as well, including food, decorations, and a lips-shaped pinata! The theme of the day- RED! Almost all the food was red- including strawberries, raspberries, red bell peppers, peaches, red pears, plums, apples, and pear juice in cute little bottles Stephanie brought. Elizabeth put a few raspberries and strawberries in decorative muffin cups (beautiful touch!) and put bite sized pieces of fruit in festive bags that we scattered and hung from various places in the playroom. The chimps were SO excited! The playroom was decorated to the max! Thanks so much to Dick, Robbi, Stephanie and Shelley, Margaret, and Karen! You guys put on quite the party! Due to technical difficulties, I was unable to put a video together today, but I’ve posted a sneak peek of the food. I promise more to come tomorrow… 🙂 Happy Valentine’s Day!
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Foxie frequently rubs her toes together. I don’t think we’ve shared any video of this on the blog before. It is one of Foxie’s many endearing habits.
